A Song Of Destiny
by Fields of paper
Summary: In Love And In Death, Always Together, No Matter What The cost, Together Forever.
1. The White Wing

this was made by me and Phoenix To Flame. if you don't know who that is, check her out. she edited this whole thing, i just came up with the idea in a DREAM. XD

warnings; maybe some lemon in the furture, i'm not too sure yet... gore, angst

**A Song Of Destiny**

The ground vanished in yards beneath Kamui's feet as he darted through the woods, attempting to run away from his unwanted pursuer, but to no true luck.  
>The soles of his shoes sent loose dirt roughly soaring into the air, projecting the idea of wings of dust. Around them, the dull green of the trees blurred into the darkened shades of Hokuto's eyes, shadowed and shaded in death.<br>He kept Subaru's hand clutched in his tightly, dragging along the other vampire with an urgency that Subaru did not seem to share, looking for an escape from this world.  
>Even as a vampire of great strength and endurance, he could only keep up this level of flight for so long; his legs began to tire as he pushed against the uneven earth, his heart pounding unnaturally loudly in the flesh of his ears. Kamui could not continue to go on, not like this.<br>He had to find a way out, and quickly.  
>The ground before them ended abruptly at a cliff that hung over a wide stretch of rock. Kamui cursed as he dug his heels into the earth, refusing to acknowledge his labored breathing.<br>If they jumped, Kamui's legs would probably break; or even worse, Subaru's. He didn't care if his own legs broke, the amount of time it took for the bones to return to their original strength would not take all that long, but if either of them couldn't run for even those brief minutes, his hope of keeping his twin from that foul cretin on their heels, would be all but destroyed.  
>He gripped his brother's hand tightly and turned to face the predator that was vastly approaching. A vibration of dark energy radiated from a single spot in the woods; the aura that of blood that had been tainted by the body of one who was never meant to be like them, that of the flowers that gave that imbecile his name; and that spot was approaching quickly, on the wings of hollow illusion.<br>Kamui stretched out the talons that arched gracefully from his fingernails, and firmly shoved Subaru behind him; the heels of his leather shoes dug into the stones and uncertain earth of the cliff edge.  
>Seishiro was coming closer, and Kamui's head began to buzz from the excitement and heightened energy level that radiated from both the man and his brother, though he could not understand <em>why<em> it was like that.  
>All fell impossibly quiet, the very air losing all whispers of safety.<br>He waited, the walls of familiar power enclosing the twins in the shadows of wings, deep and uncaring of whatever lay outside them.  
>The whole world fell silent for a moment, it seemed, and then Seishirou appeared from the trees, a smirk stained with the edges of a true smile on his face. That single amber eye shot passed him and to the one behind him.<br>The air hummed with the threads of destiny pulling tight, and Kamui felt his brother's hand grip the back of his shirt, a hot face pressed against his taut shoulder blades.  
>The bastard stepped forward in the quiet expanse between them, twigs and leaves breaking under the weight of his feet. He smiled condescendingly at Kamui, and he snarled right back, the sound meant to drive him off.<br>Tragically, it failed miserably as the mocking edge dropped from the curling of his lips and Kamui felt the strange comfort of his brother's concealed face leave him as Subaru looked back over.

"Hello Subaru-kun." Seishirou said softly, with a tone that was clearly not meant for anyone other than his twin alone, tilting his head to the side.  
>The vampire flinched, but stepped out from the safety of behind him beside his twin. Kamui could feel the confusing roil of emotions boiling up like a steaming pot emanating from his twin, a fire of conflicting desires.<br>Kamui took a step closer towards the hunter, his eyes sliding into the slit-pupiled gold of anger. Slowly, he raised a hand to point straight at the man standing across from them, the motion all that was needed to explain his view on the situation.  
>He allowed himself a quick glace at Subaru, whose eyes were filled with the agony and pain that he'd seen so often when Subaru would look to the stars, watching for something that wasn't there; but never dropped his fierce glaring at the vermin, and the cretin's smile began to fade, dropping into a child's expression of confusion.<br>He watched as Subaru held onto Kamui's shirt, clinging to the identical frame of his brother. Seishirou took a step forward, hand beginning to extend towards them, and Kamui let out a violent hiss that echoed across the trees. The vampire bore his sharp fangs at the asshole, his eyes burning in pure rage.  
>Seishirou sighed, and at last averted his eyes from his twin. "Kamui, won't you let me at least talk with your brother? It will take but a moment," he said politely, the phrasing turning the question into a demand, taking out his pair of glasses and putting them on the bridge of his nose.<br>They glinted against the small amount of light that reflected off of his necklace, which rested comfortably around his neck. Kamui growled in answer, not even needing to say anything, and Subaru hovered on the edge of indecision, the very fact that he couldn't choose making him even more infuriated.  
>Seishirou sighed again, looking as about as disappointed as if he'd been told that they were out of his favorite sweets at the store. Actually, there would have been disappointment in there if that were the case.<br>Why oh why did Subaru have to lo- _like _such an unrepentant sociopath like the man in front of him?  
>The man's single eye glittered with dangerous intensity as Kamui crouched on all fours, ready to lunge forward at the slightest movement, and Seishirou drew out the infernal sword, the hilt wobbling before it quickly materialized a thin and sharp blade.<p>

They hung on the edge of the seconds, waiting for an agonizingly long moment, and the clouds overhead began to drop their burden, rain beginning to fall in large dollops. The only sounds that lingered were the sounds of rain pelting their clothes and the earth, along with Seishirou's faint nose-breathing. Kamui could smell the stink that proved that he had recently fed. It smelled like lamb's blood, but the vampire wasn't too sure, plenty of creatures had the weakened scent of prey.

After several moments of complete stagnancy, like that brief moment before an old-fashioned gunfight, Kamui lunged forward and swiped his claws against Seishirou's blade, smacking near the hilt in an attempt to disarm him.  
>The encounter left the talon of his little finger broken by the contact, but as his feet touched the ground he broke off the remainder numbly, watching it slowly grow back, more tender and fragile then before, but still usable. Yet during his brief distraction, the taller man had kicked the youth in the back, twisting his foot into his rear and pushing forward roughly to send him sprawling.<br>The youth hit the rapidly dampening ground and, finding his feet quickly, darted forward, listening to hear if the other was following. There was the sound of shoes sticking to the earth, a sort of sickening squelch with each movement, and without looking, he snapped his hand back and scratched at something that was behind it. The footsteps stopped their forward momentum, and Kamui turned to see what he had struck.  
>Seishirou was holding the side of his face, his blade on the ground and his visible seeing eye fighting the urge to clench tightly in pain. Blood leaked from in between tightly pressed fingers, and Kamui took this opportunity to steal the man's sword before he could recover.<br>The man narrowed his eye once he realized that something had been taken from him, and he straightened, dropping his hands from his face.  
>What Kamui saw made him cringe inwardly; Seishirou's cheek was sliced open, his blood-covered teeth and parts of the flesh of his gums showing through the torn flaps of skin. But in seconds the wounds had healed, the muscle and skin restoring itself in a way that only a vampire could, as if he was soaking up the wound into himself till nothing remained of physical loss.<br>As the skin finished repairing itself, Seishirou smiled at him with no trace of his usual amusement, a malevolent look filling his eyes instead.  
>Subaru's shout for them to stop was ignored, as was the sound of his gloves shredding to pieces.<p>

Kamui dashed towards him without the bonus of thinking through his actions, the sword clutched tightly in hand, and then he was abruptly smashed in the chest and sent flying in the opposite direction of his destination.  
>The tree that he crashed into was not as forgiving as the ground when it came to quickly restoring movement.<br>Subaru's green eyes were widened in horror as he watched his twin impact the ancient pine tree with a sickening crack.  
>The man responsible for his current inability to move took a step forward, golden eye impenetrable, and the sword slowly lifted from the ground as if on invisible wings. For even when not in contact with it, Seishirou could control the sword with his unearthly magic.<br>He turned the blade with a look of deep concentration, and directed it to fly at Kamui's chest. Kamui forced himself to move through the pain of broken ribs and drop the earth with a stifled shriek.  
>The sword quivered in the earth, buried half of the blade length in.<br>He coughed up a clot of blood that threatened to cut off his air as he tried to get up; and Kamui groaned in momentary pain as his ribs an internal organs snapped themselves back into place.  
>The healing seemed to take forever while he watched Seishirou, prepared to strike at a moment's notice if he did a damned aggressive <em>thought<em>, as he took back his damned blade and turned to face Subaru, again that unusual smile filling his face but for his eye.  
>As the pain diminished and the rain began to fall harder, blurring the world through sheets of water, the lanky vampire shifted in a crouch, and darted forward, smacking into the back of the cretin's knees.<br>The man stumbled and almost toppled forward in surprise, his eyes flying wide and he let out a grunt. Strong, slender arms wrapped his thighs, claws digging into the muscles and, ready to shred them off in a second without hesitation. Seishirou growled, an animalistic sound wholly at war with his usually aloof and calm state, and without hesitating, he picked up one of his feet, ignoring the fact that the action buried the claw tips deeper in, and struck Kamui in the groin.  
>He yelled out in shocked fury, releasing the man and recoiling back, falling onto his ass on the wet ground. The man straightened with a dark look, sword in hand, and raised it above Kamui's neck. He growled and prepared to take the man down with him, since he couldn't seem to get into a good position to divest him of his head.<br>If it meant that Subaru would be safe from him, Kamui would willingly die.  
>"<em>No<em>!" Subaru's voice rang out and there was the sound of splashing mud, followed by a surprised grunt from Seishirou.  
>The sword fell to the ground and the blade dissolved, Seishirou's concentration on the sword completely lost.<br>Kamui had completely lost track of where his twin was as he had been pushed back more and more by the hunter, but now he saw that Subaru had thrown himself at the man, wrapping his arms around Seishirou's so that he was pinned. One set of elegant talons was shakingly pointed at Seishirou's neck...the other towards him.  
>With claws spread, he readied himself for Seishirou's next attack, next hostile movement, but none came. The rain poured around them in a turmoiltust stream, washing away all the signs of the fight down the cliff so very close. The man simply stared at Subaru with surprise, his eyes unusually full of emotion and thought.<br>Minutes passed as he stayed frozen like that, his clothes soaking and the hilt of his sword slowly sinking into the earth, forgotten by all of them.  
>Kamui hissed as the man narrowed his eyes, but instead of doing anything violent, he lowered his arms from where they were frozen, sliding them away from Subaru's awkward grip. "What are you doing Subaru-kun?" he asked, the sounds oddly disjointed, and it struck Kamui that Seishirou had to be just as shocked as him at this burst of aggressive energy from <em>Subaru<em>-of all people.  
>"Stop fighting." he said. Kamui opened his mouth to protest, but none came from his tightening throat. Subaru's eyes were flecked with shades of gold, and there was a fiercely sad expression filling his face. "No more trying to kill each other, no more."<p>

Seishirou looked at the hand with elegant talons in diminishing surprise, as if expecting an attack, but none came. With baffled eyes he looked back down at Subaru, who was now crying silently; but his lips were not positioned in a frown. He was smiling, the kind of smile meant to keep others from crying as well.

Kamui stared at the two of them, feeling like he was staring down from the precipice lurking so nearby. The storm rumbled around them, and it was silent but for the sound of rain.

Subaru's smile wavered as the claws from his hands sunk back into the beds of his nails. He pressed a shaking hand against where Seishirou's heart would be, if Kamui believed that the cretin _had_ a heart. "Do you feel it? Your heart... it's beating so very hard. Do you know why?" he asked, staring up at the one eyed man, as if expecting an answer. When he received none, he continued, his eyes looking at the spot where his hand rested. "It's because you're afraid. Afraid of what could happen now." he whispered, as if telling that strange truth should not have been heard by anyone else.  
>Kamui felt a growing awe for the amount of power his twin held over the man who now looked at Subaru as if he were the only anchor of the world, the adult-ness of his face completely lost and he swore he could see a confused child, someone who didn't understand what they were feeling.<br>Seishirou's breath stuttered as Subaru's smile fell away, unable to hold strong against what he must have felt. Then he placed a hand over Subaru's bare one, impossibly gently for the kind of person that Kamui knew him to be.  
>Had it been that Subaru was right all along about him? Kamui wasn't sure he wanted to face the fact that <em>this<em> person, _this_ Seishirou could be human enough to show the more prey-like emotions, the ones that consumed and twisted logic into need.

"Do you feel it now? That suffocating feeling that's making your breath uneven?" Subaru continued, his voice strong despite the tears that Kamui knew still ran down his brother's face. "That's fear. And it's okay to be afraid sometimes. When things happen that you don't like, and can't change. When people..." the solidarity of his voice shook for a moment before regaining the foundation of meaning. "When people say things that you can't comprehend. And then you want to make them stop scaring you."

Seishirou said nothing, and only continued to watch Subaru with the intensity that had so annoyed Kamui before, when he had thought that the man just wanted Subaru's blood, or his body, or to break him till there was nothing left to make him want to live.  
>And yet, <em>and yet<em>, he had the cripplingly strong suspicion that maybe it wasn't a _want_, but a _need_. A child's need for stability, a man who believed in nothing but what he could feel, searching for someone who made all of the incomprehensibility of the world make sense.  
>The air thrummed with thousands of unspoken words, each one holding a thousand meanings and a thousand truths that maybe none of them were able to face.<br>And the rain tumbled serenely to earth.

-A/N-

we are working on the next chapter very soon! please leave a review, and we hope that you like it! :D


	2. The Black Horse

**Chapter 2; the black horse**

**Chapter 2; the black horse**

The world was far damper than Seishirou's usual desires, and Fuuma found himself wondering why his brother had chosen that world at all.  
>The rain dripped onto his glasses, blurring up his vision until he shook the water from his face with a slight expression of discomfort, dragging his feet from the mud.<br>He knew that somewhere, s_omewhere_ in this mud-pit of a world, that his brother, his brother's obsession and his brother's obsession's twin were all together, making Hitsuzen reconsider whether or not having the three of them in the same space was a good idea.  
>The air crackled with barely contained lightning, and Fuuma found himself practically clinging to the trees in a vain attempt to find shelter as he worked his way farther into the world, trusting only the pulling of a Wish to guide his path.<br>There was a soft hissing sound, and he whipped around to see a silhouette of a girl, slender and finely built. She smiled through the rain, her green eyes the only truly visible thing about her, and pointed through two trees twined so closely together they might have been like the briars of silly old folk songs, growing from the hearts of dead lovers to tie around each other, supposedly the plant versions of the lover's souls.  
>He didn't need to question for a moment whether or not it was wise to follow her directions. Her Wish, unfulfilled in life, shone just as clearly in death.<br>"_I want them to be happy_." He wasn't sure whether it was the echo of her words, or just the strains of a Wish fluttering into his mind from across the thousands of plains stretching between them.  
>The ground solidified slightly as he pushed his way around the trees, and then there was a path, clear enough to have been sculpted out from the picture of wilderness.<br>There were footprints, mostly faded and filling with water by the second, but he knew who lay at the end of it.

Seishirou.

Subaru.

Kamui.

Fuuma needed no urging from the ghostly girl lurking in the corners of his eyes as he followed the path, heedless of the fact that each step was a risk of sacrificing his shoes to the bog gods of the world.  
>The trees thinned out suddenly, and he stopped before his momentum could take him too far.<br>What he saw, was an incredibly interesting tableau unfolding. Kamui, crouched on the ground, looking somewhere between murderous, lost and proud.  
>And his brother and Subaru were locked in a stance somewhere between destruction and rebirth, Subaru's hand resting right where the tiniest flickers of heart lay in his brother's chest, slender and white against the black and soaked fabric. Seishirou's sword lay in the mud, the hilt sinking into the earth peacefully, as if it were no longer needed, and his face was the least guarded he had ever seen it.<br>They were all locked into the moment, and the frailest disturbance would shatter the glass illusion that it threatened to be.  
>Green eyes in the forest flickered and vanished, her purpose done for the moment.<br>The thing that broke the scene was not Fuuma's appearance, but rather the shaky breath that Seishirou released, too uncontrolled for him to be feeling like anything less than the entire _world _was collapsing beneath his feet.  
>Subaru's response was to move from that cautious touch to a full-fledged embrace, concealing his face in the shoulder of the taller man. His brother did not return the touch, but the very fact that he did not push it away spoke infinite volumes.<br>Kamui stood up, violet eyes slowly losing their emotional turmoil as he locked all the feelings away. Fuuma noted with not just a hint of interest that his already usually taunting clothes were soaked to his body and black bangs clung to his face, dripping water down his cheeks like unshed tears. The vampire opened his mouth to say something, but his eyes flicked to the surprising duo and he shut it again.  
>That was probably for the best. Fuuma was sure that he wasn't even on his brother's 'kill' list, but the circumstances were definitely not the best, and he suspected that Seishirou might use instinct first and premeditation second if startled.<br>He walked over to the vampire anyway, amused by the flicker of a Wish that rose from him only to be squashed so firmly that it made the puddles of mud look like mountains.  
>At last Subaru let go, shivering a little and looking much smaller than usual when his long coat was clinging to him, drenched wings hampering flight instead of allowing it.<br>Seishirou broke the silent scene, looking straight at the person who had simultaneously shattered and rebuilt his perception of _something._ "You're going to freeze in that, Subaru-kun." he said with a hint of his normal self. Though his voice shook the slightest of slight amounts, nobody was foolish enough to say anything.  
>Subaru laughed, the sound wholly unexpected and almost forced in the tense energy that permeated the clearing. "I don't freeze so easily." he said softly, the emotion leaking from his voice as rain ran down his face, following the trails undoubtedly colored by tears. "And you don't either."<br>Kamui had an expression on his face that left little doubt that if he'd had less pride, he'd be pouting.  
>Not that it wasn't completely obvious already.<br>He smiled at them, deliberately ignoring Seishirou's niggling little Wish for the two of them who obviously weren't Subaru to just _go away already_ and let him figure out his mess himself. "I've only been here for a short time, and it's already freezing. And wet." he added with a smirk. "I'm sure that if we hold onto each other tight enough, that we can all make the jump to the same world at the same time."  
>Kamui glared at him, looking drawn out enough that he would tolerate his comments less than usual, and his fingers twitched with the obvious desire to claw the smirk off of his face.<br>Fuuma ignored it with just the smallest amount of difficulty, and looked at the other two. "So how about it, want to find somewhere a little less wet?" he offered again.  
>Seishirou hovered on the edge of indecision, yet Subaru summoned up a trembling smile, bangs sliding into his eyelashes and framing his face more prominently than usual. "That would be nice." he said softly, and all the fight went out of the other two, which from Kamui, was to be expected, but was really quite unusual from Seishirou.<br>They made an odd circle, Seishirou unwilling to let go of Subaru's hand, and Kamui unwilling to let Seishirou have that kind of pull over Subaru, clenching Fuuma's hand so tightly he thought that all of the blood might have been cut off. Seishirou's grip was just as clingy, but less physically painful.  
>The sky opened and swallowed them up, falling away in drops bigger than the rain, and they were moving.<p>

The room that opened up off of the crumbling outer walls was thankfully largely undisturbed by the passing of nature, and though thick dust coated everything, it looked rather like the inhabitants had just left it the way it was, intending to come back to it.  
>It was a creepy image all together, and if it weren't for the fact that the new world that they had landed on was <em>also<em> raining, Fuuma wouldn't have been so thrilled about its relative lack of disturbance.  
>Kamui had gone from being concerned and almost human in his vulnerability, back to being the vampire who whipped out his claws at the slightest innuendo in anything less than the most shallow of statement. If it weren't for the fact that Kamui had a thrill of life that was more potent in his aggressive energy, Fuuma would have found it annoying.<br>Also the way that he pursed his lips was ridiculously adorable.  
>But now they had hit a standstill, in which Kamui, drenched and bedraggled, stood in one of the doorways, dripping water and agitation in equal measures, locked in a dark staring contest with his brother. The reason for this would be the green-eyed vampire clinging to Seishirou, yet looking back at his twin with an obvious amount of trepidation, unable to choose whether to stay with Seishirou or go with Kamui.<br>"Subaru." Kamui said, tension tightening his tone until it was a strangled shadow of itself. "Come with me, we'll be fine on our own."  
>There was a smug undertone to Seishirou's smirk, except that the smirk itself was all smug, and it was almost calculated to throw the vampire into a flailing state. "Subaru-<em>kun<em> seems to be interested in staying right here." he purred, arm encircling the smaller teen right next to him.  
>Kamui visibly seethed, but did not respond in the way that Seishirou anticipated. Subaru cast a look back and forth at the both of them, the strands of faint annoyance rising to the surface of his eyes. Just the tiniest little pieces, and would have been invisible if it weren't for the fact that the two of them had been bickering with stealthy insults and catty remarks since they'd gotten out of the rain.<br>Even _he_ was starting to find it quite tiresome, and it was really amusing to watch them find every way possible to make their mutual dislike of each other clear while trying to keep Subaru from knowing.  
>"Just because you're holding onto him doesn't mean that he wouldn't come with me if you let go." Kamui sniped, losing some of his hold on his temper. "Subaru. Come <em>here.<em>"  
>His brother's eyes narrowed, and he pulled Subaru closer with all of the attitude of a child with a favorite teddy bear. "It's his own decision."<br>Fuuma could feel a Wish that rose itchily from the source of the argument, and Subaru had a tension slowly rising up in his shoulders that neither of the combatants seemed to notice.  
>So he stepped in on behalf of the one who's opinion actually <em>mattered<em>, with a grin that concealed his own thoughts on the whole thing. "Why not instead of arguing over where Subaru-san's interests lie, you two can go and find whatever Kamui needs, and give Subaru a break from the sound of you both cat-fighting over him."  
>Okay, so the part of keeping his own thoughts on the situation quiet had failed miserably, but it got the point across, and both parties shot a slightly guilty glance at a relieved Subaru. Well, guiltiness wasn't really something that Seishirou ever showed, or even seemed to have, but there was a level of emotion that applied to Subaru and Subaru alone.<br>Kamui scowled and whipped around, the damp strands of his hair sticking to his neck in a way that was very relevant to his interests. "Tch. Subaru, make sure you rest, and don't feel afraid to hit the other idiot in the room." he said over his shoulder, everything about his posture suggesting that the only reason he was doing this was for his brother.  
>Seishirou let go of Subaru slowly, sliding his fingers down to grip Subaru's hands with just enough force to be possessive. There was a moment where they looked at each other, just <em>looked<em>, and then Seishirou was walking out after Kamui, as proud as a cat.  
>The room was awkwardly silent for a moment as the sound of Kamui's blurred comment targeted at his companion faded out, then Subaru let out a breath he'd probably been holding the entire time. "Thank you Fuuma-san." he said with one of those gentle smiles that had probably caught Seishirou's attention in the first place. "I wasn't sure I could get them to stop."<br>Fuuma resisted the temptation to tell him that he had so much unknown control over the two of them that they would probably even make a genuine effort to be nice to each other around him if he actually stood up and said something about it. Instead, he just smiled back at the vampire. "If they have to spill blood on anything, I'd prefer that they did it where it was only the two of them. It takes forever to clean up off of my clothes."  
>Subaru didn't laugh at his comment, and instead brushed at one of the dusty couches, watching the clouds spiral up into the ancient air with an oddly black expression on his face. "Kamui may act really nasty to you, but he does like you." he said at last, the words calmer than anything that his brother might have said.<br>Fuuma felt a completely different smile slide onto his lips, walking over to help Subaru with removing the dust from the furniture. "I was starting to wonder." he said with a level of ambiguity, allowing the vampire to fill in wherever he was planning on going.  
>Subaru glanced at him with a trace of his smile brushing at his lips. "You're good for him." Another cloud of dust rose up, almost invisible in the darkness of the room.<br>He let the silence stand between them again, and watched the dust with a small amount of difficulty spiral gracefully to earth. Somewhere off in the distance, there was the sound of breaking wood, and Subaru huffed out a quick breath of air that disturbed the falling flakes of age. Then he turned to face Fuuma, his green eyes flickering cattily in the shadows. "So I'm entrusting him to you, because I know he'll be happy."  
>Then green flashed to gold warningly, and he didn't have to say anything more.<br>Fuuma nodded once. "I promise." he said, allowing the serenity of something he would never be able to deny fill his tone until even the quiet sound rang out gently against the walls.  
>That flat gold faded back to green, and there was another loosening of tension in the room. Then Subaru turned and walked off towards a corner of the room. "There's a fireplace over there, and it has fuel in it. Would you help me start a fire?"<br>Fuuma moved with more caution through the room than the vampire needed, the other not hampered by the darkness of the room at all. "Sure." he said with amusement as there was another smashing of wood somewhere else in the house.  
>Either Kamui and Seishirou were taking out their frustrations on each other, or they were keeping it to snotty comments and breaking down the doors instead.<br>He knelt down with some difficulty next to the smaller teen, pulling out the flint that he had learned the hard way was very useful. "Is there anything that will catch quickly?" he asked, trying to make out the blurs in the dark for something like strands of dead grass or paper.  
>Subaru made a soft sound of affirmation. "There's some really thin material on top of the wood, and it's quite dry." Hands that were almost pale enough to be a lamp in the darkness reached out and brushed against something that crinkled at the touch.<br>It took a few strikes of one of the chipped stones carefully removed from the rest of the block to create a spark solid enough to catch on the strange material, and soon the faint orange light of fire was starting up, making Fuuma's eyes water in pain from the sudden light.  
>Subaru appeared to have no such trouble, and went back to trying to clear off the furniture, raising clouds into the air that <em>sparkled<em> in the light like glittery fireflies. Then he stopped, and tilted his head to the side. "They're coming back." he said with no doubt in his tone of who it was.  
>"Is it just me, or is it brighter in there then when we left?" Kamui's voice echoed, sounded more pleased than when he left.<br>"I could say it was just you, but then I would look foolish once we got there." Seishirou's voice was light with the pleasure he gained from messing with people's heads.  
>Subaru smiled again, his whole face glowing gold and rose in the firelight that grew stronger with each passing second. Fuuma sat down on one of the less dusty couchs with a smirk and waited.<br>It was only a moment before purple and amber eyes materialized out of the shadows in the door. "Oh, I see there's fire." his brother greeted, two comforters hanging over his shoulder like dead bodies.  
>Kamui darted in at that comment, before seeing that it was all contained and Subaru was just fine. Fuuma would have felt slighted by this fact if it weren't for the fact that Subaru had actually waved Kamui off with a laugh. Then the twin he preferred, stalked over to stand next to him, tossing one of his own comforters over him without actually looking.<p>

The action of it raised yet another cloud of dust, and Fuuma fought down the urge to cough as Seishirou entered the room, looking more polished than Kamui, who had gained a rumpled quality as he dried off, the long coat wrinkling up till it wasn't quite so richly elegant.  
>Fuuma considered the pros and cons of offering to help warm up the vampire who kept casting glances at the fire with a catlike temptation to curl up next to it, and decided he rather liked his skin attached to his body.<br>His brother stood next to the fire, a shadow in the flickering light as he said something to Subaru, the sounds too quiet for him to pick up. Whatever it was, Subaru blushed a coral color that was darkened and gilded by the firelight, and smiled.  
>It was so obviously something private between them, that Fuuma turned away instead of snooping, allowing them at least the illusion that it was only the two of them, and chose to focus on his vampire instead. "So did you fall through any doors, or just break them?"<br>Kamui snorted in disdain. "Your _brother_ was showing off the entire time, and broke several walls. And killed a colony of mice to filch a blanket for them. But I guess I can tolerate someone who's controlled enough to shatter a wall and not even get any dust on him."  
>It was probably as much concession as he would ever admit about Seishirou, and suggested that they hadn't only been searching for blankets, but also talking.<br>So he reached up and caught one of those slender wrists, deceptively fragile looking, and pulled the startled man down to lie on him. Kamui let out an undignified squawk as he fell down on top of him, and he almost put his claws through Fuuma's shoulders.  
>The very fact that he stopped himself before impaling him was enough to send waves of pleased fire through his chest.<br>Kamui bared fangs at him. "What are you _doing_ you idiot?" he hissed, the tone low enough that the two wrapped up in each other probably wouldn't notice. "Let go of me."  
>Fuuma let go of his wrist- and then wrapped his other arm around Kamui's shoulders, pulling him to an awkward resting position, where Kamui's ear was resting against where his heart beat just a little faster than usual. "You're cold, I'm not." he said by way of lack of explanation. "Relax."<br>The vampire huffed, and glared at him, but there was a level of fiery anger that wasn't there, and a part of him thrust up a fist in triumph at the fact.  
>The fire burned peacefully, and Subaru eventually broke away only to sit on one of the couches, underneath one of Seishirou's spoils of war, looking peaceful.<br>Seishirou stood against the wall right behind the old furniture, all signs of his much earlier break in composure erased and melted away like they'd never existed, watching the drowsy vampire turn his glasses over and over in delicate fingertips, apparently admiring them. There were the traces of an honest smile flittering about his lips, as if they were a butterfly too uncertain to get close enough to see if the flower was really a flower.  
>Fuuma watched the strange caring that his brother was watching Subaru with, an obsessive desire that was nevertheless too gentle to destroy the vampire who was practically his opposite.<br>A twist of Subaru's smile, and he was taking the thin frames and placing them onto his own face, sliding them on with acute precision.  
>...so Subaru wasn't exactly his type, and Fuuma wasn't going to go after him even if he weren't subconsciously claimed by his brother with fatal consequences for any interlopers, but he was allowed to think that Subaru was <em>insanely<em> cute in those, with the golden edges slipping down the bridge of his nose slightly, bright green eyes blinking tiredly.  
>From the flash of interest in Seishirou's eyes, clearly that little tidbit of strange attractiveness had been noted, liked, and filed away for a later time.<br>But Subaru's blinking came more and more often, and there were longer and longer pauses between when his eyes opened again.  
>His brother took the smallest of steps, just enough to rest a hand on damp black locks possessively, and Subaru closed his eyes for good, his breathing evening out into the soft rhythm of sleep.<br>It was probably a good thing that Kamui had long since fallen asleep on his own couch, fingers twitching occasionally in whatever dream he walked in, or Seishirou might have had to stop an attack from an enraged possessive twin.  
>Fuuma was expecting a few claws from the other anyway, once Kamui woke up and saw what he had chosen to be his pillow.<br>Not that Fuuma _minded_ by any stretch of the imagination having his lap used by such a pretty claw-prone vampire who was more cat-like than anything else.  
>He cast another look up towards his brother, and saw that the smile seemed to have taken root, leaving a burning fire in Seishirou's one eye. He also seemed uninterested in removing the glasses from Subaru's face.<br>It was something really unusual, that he hadn't raised a fuss when Subaru had taken them from his face, or spent any time at all touching them, or even wearing then, when usually they were the thing held closest to his heart.  
>"Onii-san," he began softly, taking care to keep his voice pitched quietly enough to not wake the slumbering duo. "Why do you still have those glasses anyway?"<br>That burning look vanished from his eye, and Seishirou fixed him with a penetrating look, well remembered as the look that he got whenever he was 'in trouble'.  
>But then something relaxed in his posture, and he turned his gaze to the floor. "They're <em>mine." <em>he said, and those two words could have been all that were needed to explain it.  
>But he continued. "Oh, I was given many things when we were younger. But all of them broke, or weren't really mine in the ways that mattered. I had them, but they meant nothing."<br>"But then Mother gave me these, when it was clear that I was a little foresighted." There was a smile somewhere between violent and sweet toying with his mouth again. "They did nothing."  
>Seishirou ran a thumb over Subaru's hair, disturbing the fine strands momentarily before they fell back into place. "But they were<em> mine<em>, something that only I had, and only I was allowed to touch. And for that reason, they were...important."  
>Fuuma smiled at the strange sense of sentimentality that his brother possessed. Only Seishirou would have something completely useless to him as his 'treasured possession'. "So Subaru is allowed to touch them because...?" he prompted.<br>There was a sweet knife's blade of a smile on his face now. "Subaru-kun is also mine, so those of what is mine are allowed to interact."  
>Fuuma fought down the urge to laugh. Pure Seishirou logic right there.<br>The fire burned a little lower, and Fuuma thought about putting another dusty log on so that it wouldn't go out. But that would involve disturbing his peaceful vampire, and he couldn't bring himself to do that.  
>Thankfully, Seishirou appeared to have picked up the art of mind-reading, and he crossed over, graceful enough not to disturb the dirt and dust resting in unwieldy piles on the floor.<br>As a spray of sparks splashed up from the log falling in awkwardly, Seishirou's grace not extending to things that he discarded, Fuuma found a compulsion of weariness rising up over him, a desire to relax and sleep with his vampire, if only in the innocent sense of the term.  
>Seishirou returned to his state of sentinel over Subaru, looking as awake and alert as ever, even though he had to be as tired as any of them.<br>But he was watching, and Fuuma deemed it safe to try and rest for a little while.  
>So he closed his eyes, the rhythms of the fire light on the walls imprinting themselves in waves of thousands of colors against black on the insides of his eyelids.<br>He watched them until they blurred and faded away, along with the hours.

-a/n-

We hope you liked it! please leave a review and the next chapter will be updates soon. Authors; Phoenix To Flame and Fields Of Paper. Thank you for reading!


	3. The Silver King

**Chapter 3; The Silver King**

The morning had dawned in a rather dull way, the downpour of the night before clearly not done yet, and it continued tumbling merrily to earth, streaming down around the house to reach its inevitable goal.  
>Seishirou certainly had been in more pleasant worlds before, but since this one had his Subaru in it, he tolerated it for as long as he needed to.<br>Within reason, of course.  
>He had abstained from sleep the night before, listening to each sound in the small room, from the crackling of the fire, spitting and popping with an absent rhythm, to the sound of Fuuma's soft mutters- and no matter how much his brother denied his sleep talking, Seishirou had heard it too many times to be put off by paltry things like threats to his general vicinity- to Subaru's gentle whispers of breath as they brushed at the rough blanket that he had curled up under.<br>He was kneeling next to Subaru's couch, relaxing as much as possible when his side was turned towards the _other_ dozing vampire, and the less pleasant to his continued health.  
>His morning had been slightly dampened by the continued rain, and the tingling absence of the necklace. It hadn't been something that was especially useful, or stayed out of the way, swaying around his hips, but it had been Subaru's, and it had been <em>his<em>.  
>He had gone so long with it, but then he'd almost run out of chances to find his elusive vampire.<br>That didn't mean that he was yet used to the emptiness where it used to hang about his neck, the only proof other than his memories and his blood that Subaru had not been only a dream.  
>The vampire occupying his thoughts was hovering somewhere between the waking world and the world of dreams, eyelids fluttering restlessly as he climbed out of whatever lay in the depths of his mind.<br>Bright green eyes that were far more valuable than all the jewels of all the worlds blinked open. There was a moment's confusion, before that heartbreakingly beautiful smile filled his face.  
>Seishirou returned the honest emotion of the moment, a smile of his own creeping onto his face. "Good morning Subaru-kun." he whispered, careful to not wake the dozing duo on the other side of the room.<br>"Good morning Seishirou-san." Subaru said softly, that smile still lighting up his whole face. His eyes flicked away from him to the window behind, then back. "Is it still raining?"  
>"Yes."<br>Subaru made a small sound in his throat, stifled laughter. "You really don't like it, do you?" he said with obvious amusement.  
>Seishirou resisted the urge to scowl at the window, since it would solve absolutely nothing, and stood up again, casting a glance at the other two. "Where should we go next?" he asked.<br>There was a moment's pause, and he looked back over. To his infinite surprise, Subaru's smile had vanished, and he was staring first at his neck, and then further down. "Subaru-kun?"  
>"Your necklace." his voice was still a whisper, but there was an intensity that made it seem oddly loud. "What happened to it?"<br>Against any and all physical instinct, his hand flew to the point of his neck where the chain used to hang. It was very much a movement of guilt.

"Seishirou-san?"

He sighed, and wondered dimly why it stung just as much now as it did to let go of it. "I sold it."  
>There was an undeniable flash of hurt in Subaru's eyes, and that <em>burned<em> like the heat of the fireplace, stung like acid dropped into eyes. "Why?" he breathed.  
>It was suddenly much harder to meet those green eyes. "It was a price."<br>Subaru's eyes flashed golden, and he stood up, the dark coat flowing behind him like a second shadow. But there was no aggression in his stance, only pain.  
>Subaru said nothing more, but looked at him with flickering eyes, and then abruptly stalked over to the doorway, and walked out with long strides.<br>It occurred to him that standing exactly where he was, not saying or doing anything, was_ not_ the best course of action, but by the time he found the ability to unstick himself from the floor, the sound of the ruined front door smacking shut, along with the briefly louder sound of rain, told him that it was really too late to go after him.  
>It was very odd, but he felt <em>really<em> bad about doing such a thing. But he'd been running out of time, and his chances were dwindling with each failed world.  
>So he just stood there, not entirely sure what he was supposed to be doing.<br>There was the faintest sound from the other part of the room, and Seishirou whipped his head around to look.  
>Fuuma had woken up at some point, and how he hadn't noticed, he didn't know, but there was a small smile, the kind that his brother had always worn when he had caused large amounts of frustration by not understanding why someone reacted the way they did. "You should go after him." he whispered, barely moving to avoid agitating his unexpected blanket.<br>Seishirou stared at him, allowing the silence to explain everything.  
>Fuuma snorted, the effect stirring Kamui's hair. "Go after him and tell him <em>why<em>." he said with far too much calmness for the situation. "Otherwise things are going to fall apart."  
>Seishirou hesitated a moment longer, not quite sure why, and Fuuma made a soft sound of exasperation. "Do you really want to lose him just now that you've found him?"<br>He needed no more inclination, and he swept away from the room and its stale taste of something that didn't quite make sense to him.  
>The door was carefully shut so that the two separate pieces were holding together.<br>He left them both swaying behind him, disjointed and awkward.  
>The rain bit into his skin just the way that the water of Tokyo had, except without the part where it burned away flesh. This was just cold, and bitter.<br>There were no footprints to show where Subaru had gone before him, or any sort of mark at all. Just hundreds of trees that glowed a sort of misty green in the ever falling rain.  
>He was already soaking, but he could not find it in himself to care.<br>There was an instinct towards a trail lurking in between the intricate patterns of trees, a pull that he had followed the previous day, searching for the one he needed.  
>So he followed it again, that tug that bound him and Subaru together as the two faces of the coin, the strings of fate that tied them just out of reach of each other.<br>Seishirou felt an urge building in his legs, a compulsion to run along the murky path, and he allowed it, speeding up his pace until the mud of the ground splashed up with each step.  
>The forest thinned out around him, and then a lake that he hadn't seen the night before was suddenly in view, what must have been a normally tranquil surface was roiling with the force of the rain, each drop displacing the whole of it until it was a beast all its own.<br>The ground grew less solid about his feet, sloshing in a way that made him dimly fear for the fate of his coat, but that was nothing next to the need to find his vampire.  
>His hair stuck to his face and did absolutely nothing to help his visibility as he pushed black strands out of his eyes, searching for a slim black figure through the sheets of water.<br>There were green eyes, faded and washed out, and they weren't the ones that he was looking for, but they looked towards an outreaching branch of land, murky enough to vanish into the early morning.  
>Seishirou bolted for it, ignoring the part of him that asked <em>why<em> he was running so fast, and he saw the glint of a devil-may-care smile in the rain.  
>He ignored that too, and slowed just as he came to the beginning of the outcropping.<p>

Subaru was nothing more than a blur in the rain, drenched even more than he was. Yet he obviously knew that Seishirou was there, for he turned around, and met him gaze for gaze. "I'm sorry for running off."  
>Seishirou took a step closer, and another, not wanting to scare off the vampire. "What did I do wrong?" he asked, aware that they were perhaps <em>now<em> at the moment of truth, where everything would be decided.  
>Subaru did not move away from him, but neither did he move closer, and that was enough to point at the indecision in the smaller being. "You didn't know what the necklace meant, did you?"<br>Seishirou took one more step, and looked, _just looked_ at the vampire who had come to mean more to him than anyone else in all of the worlds. "What did it mean Subaru-kun?"  
>Subaru wrapped his arms around himself in a universal form of protection, but kept their eyes connected. "When we come of age, we are given a necklace, one that we choose the emblem of, and we alone wear it, until we choose a partner."<br>Seishirou again pressed a hand to the empty space by his neck, and everything suddenly made sense.  
>So he had to explain better than before. "I sold it to the Dimension Witch." he said quickly, an irrational fear that not saying it as soon as possible would destroy any chances he had left. "I've been searching for you, but I was running out of time that I could travel, and <em>I wasn't finding you."<em> he took a breath, a habit that he hadn't been able to discard just yet. "So in exchange for the next time that I jumped worlds, it would be the one that you were in, I sold it, because I had nothing else of value that would have done it."  
>Subaru had frozen, was completely immobile, and Seishirou didn't know what to do other then wait. This was not something where smiling, or doing any of his usual methods of avoiding emotional confrontation would do any good.<br>On the contrary, it might wreck the situation beyond repair.  
>The rain tumbled down around them serenely, not hindered at all by the energy that crackled like sparks of lightning born only from the friction.<br>Then Subaru moved, two steps forwards, and Seishirou met him there. There was the gasp of everything never said, and then Subaru was falling into Seishirou's arms, his own circling up to cling to his shoulders, slightly long fingernails biting into the saturated coat, and he _shook_, long rippling motions that seemed to be in time with each and every raindrop.  
>Seishirou held him there, and buried his face into Subaru's soaked hair, still finding certainty despite the cold that pressed in all around him.<br>"You found me, _you found me."_ Subaru whispered, clinging tighter. "We're here now."  
>There was a strange sensation of not being able to say anything, that his throat was too tight to force sound through, but he managed to say what everything in him was <em>screaming<em> at him to say, right now. "I found you."  
>Subaru let out a shaky laugh, one that sounded like it was on the edge of being a sob, and continued to hold on.<br>The rain fell around like a comforting shield, blurring the world to pieces until they were the only thing left there.  
>At last, Subaru unburied his face from Seishirou's chest, and smiled at him, the simple action banishing all his concerns that he hadn't done it right. "You're all wet." there was just the slightest of an impish edge to the corners of his mouth. "Why are you all wet Seishirou-san?"<br>He'd _started_ to say that it was because they were both being rained on, but then Subaru interrupted him.  
>With his mouth.<br>Seishirou felt his eyes flutter shut, and most of his brain had completely shut down. It was something quite incredible, and he was having trouble processing coherant thought that wasn't focused right on the joining of their lips.  
>It lasted far too short for his preferences, but Subaru pulled back just enough that they were no longer kissing. Then he rested his head again against Seishirou's chest. "We're both soaked." he said, stating something that hadn't really mattered until that moment. "We should go back."<br>He was aware of the logic of going back to where it was warm and not wet, but that part would have required letting go of Subaru, and he didn't want to.  
>Not at all.<br>Subaru slowly let go of him, but caught his hand before they were completely separated. "We don't have to let go." he said, and it meant more than for just right now.  
>Seishirou didn't think that he could say something more meaningful than everything that Subaru seemed to exclude on a regular basis, and so he didn't.<br>They walked, hand in hand, leaving behind the finger of land that spread over the lake, and everything bad that could have been.  
>The ground clung to their feet, and Seishirou suppressed a shudder of distaste at the noise that continued to emanate with each synchronized step.<br>There were other words that could have been said, little things, but there was no need for them, and the silence was comfortable enough.  
>The trees thickened like the tightest point of an hourglass, and then opened up again to reveal the house, still looking as sad as it had the night before.<br>But the tall oak tree right next to the front door had an addition to it; the other vampire, looking as prim and put together as if nothing else had ever happened. He appeared to be talking, but whatever he was saying was drowned out by the saturated air.  
>Then he saw them, and his posture went from relaxed to tense to relaxed again. "You almost lost." he called down, and the tone of his voice left no doubt as to which of them was addressed. "That's your one and only chance."<br>He resisted the urge to say something equally childish back, an act that was mostly bolstered by the feeling of Subaru's hand locked in his. "Were you talking to the tree Kamui?" the vampire standing next to him called up, apparently unfazed by the lack of kindness in his tone.  
>Kamui stroked the tree as they came to a stop underneath it. "I was talking to the rain." he answered, with no care for how <em>strange<em> it sounded. "It told me about what you were doing, and that it's not going to stop falling until tomorrow. Late tomorrow."  
>That was vaguely dismaying.<br>Subaru smiled up at him. "We're going to go back inside."  
>Kamui made a flapping motion with a careless hand, obviously waving them off. "Get dry, be smart."<br>Subaru flushed a brilliant shade of red and walked straight for the door, not bothering to let go of Seishirou's hand at all and towing him along with strength disproportionate to his size. "Let's go, Seishirou-san." he said, avoiding eye contact with either of them.  
>Even a short time ago, he would have been offended by Subaru not meeting his eyes. Now, it was just adorable.<br>Inside, there were damp footprints leading to the room that they'd chosen the night before, suggesting that Fuuma had also been outside at some point. Seishirou didn't care at all that he was leaving mud there as well, it was better off on the floor than on his coat, and followed the blushing vampire with no small amount of amusement.  
>Fuuma was indeed in the room, looking damp, but not as damp as they both had to be. He was also holding a towel, or more accurately, rubbing his hair dry. "There's towels in the bathroom that Kamui shredded the door off of." he told them both, after casting a quick glance over them. "I haven't found any spare clothes yet, but then I haven't found a bedroom either."<br>Seishirou took two steps closer to the fire, and then was stopped by Subaru's hands. He still bore traces of his earlier flushing, but it was fading away. "Do you want to wait by the fire, Seishirou-san?"  
>Now that he wasn't in the rain, sitting next to the fire with a cuddly Subaru sounded like the best thing in the world. "Are you going to get towels?"<br>He got a smile for that. "I'll come back."  
>Then he got another kiss, far too quick to be satisfying, before Subaru's hand was sliding from his, the cold touch fading as the soaked coat slid around the corner.<br>Fuuma made a chuckling noise, and Seishirou glared at him, just daring him to say anything stupid. But he only turned slightly, rubbing at the sleeve of his jacket with the slightly dampened towel. "Well done." he said quietly. "I don't need to watch anymore."  
>Seishirou smiled in spite of the implications that Fuuma had been watching him before, and turned his eye back to watch the doorway, standing by the fire where it was warm, waiting for his vampire to come back. "No you don't."<p>

-A/N-

Seishirou, after all, is Subaru's silver king. XD edited by Phoenix To Flame and practically written by her, I came up with this in a dream. Please leave a review, the next chapter is well on its way. Thanks for reading! 


	4. Talk To The Rain

20

**Chapter 4; Talk To The Rain**

The rain tumbled peacefully around him, and Kamui stood in front of the large oak that ascended to what seemed to be an eternally clouded sky.  
>Cautiously, he reached out, with a hand that no longer bore the shreds of the glove, and touched the bark with a gentleness that he was sure he'd get <em>incredibly<em> odd looks from those not in the know if they saw it.  
>Fortunately, Fuuma appeared to be as adverse to rain as his brother, and was remaining comfortably tucked inside. The other had run after his brother, and the rain sang of the tumultuous emotions that both of them reeked.<br>The first step up was the hardest, because the wood was slick enough to catch on his bare feet. But the second gave him traction, and he climbed up into the shelter of the old tree.  
>He reached a point where it forked, the heavy leaves providing a meager shield against the streams of water that poured down, and then relaxed into it.<br>"Hello, madam tree." he greeted cordially, watching the rest of the world with a focused intent.  
>The tree purred under his touch, and then a gentle stream of images entered his mind. A clearing sky with squirrels climbing up their branches to clear the dead leaves from their leaves. The rich pulsing of days and time and dreams that ran through his blood like a river. Pure life.<br>He took a moment to interpret it, and then smiled, the expression of pleasure curling up his lips into something gentle. "Do you have a name I may address you by?"  
>A brief pause, and then there was an image of the clouds broken into patches of white, downy and floating lazily on a far away wind. It was followed by a radiant sun, light pooling down in waves that sent streams of warmth through him even in the rain.<br>The tree itself was in the center of the light, and he understood what it meant even as it purred beneath his hands. "Hello Sunstream."  
>The rain echoed and he could hear the faint melody of its voice. Unlike the tree, it was much harder to understand its voice, as it reverberated and multiplied into a thousand voices that threatened to give him a headache.<br>Of course, he had spent enough time listening to the whims and follies of water to handle at least _some_ of the inevitable headaches.  
><em>"Stronghurtcaretears." <em>it sang in strands of water that ran through his bangs. _"Trustheartbeatmemorylife."_  
>Kamui blinked at the ideas that rang through with it, of two people on the edge of a lake, locked together in an embrace that was vivid enough to sap the individuality from them until they were one blissful whole.<br>Subaru and Seishirou.  
><em>"Lovebindingstarsmelody."<em> the rain hummed in each beating. _"Waterbirthbeginningeverything."_  
>He fought down the scowl that rose to his lips at his brother's actions, and found that it was possible to force away the twinges of anger with it.<br>_"."_ The rain explained cryptically.  
>"You're worse than a cat for getting straight answers." he grouched at the rain, pushing the strings of black hair that fell into his eyes out with all the annoyance he was learning to let go of.<br>_"Thousandfoldvoiceonethought."_ the rain retorted.  
>"Well at least you don't confuse the issue." he sighed and leaned back in the tree.<br>A sound of a heartbeat, rich with the unconfined power of life, entered into his ears, beating out of time with the water. Eyes that were as sinuous as syrup stared up at him with amusement from beneath the overhang of the porch. "Who are you talking to, Kamui?" Fuuma asked with one of his omnipresent smiles rising to his lips.  
><em>"Dreamswishesthoughtsyours."<em> that sound was vibrant in only the way that someone screaming in your ears could be, and just as pleasant.  
>Kamui ignored the insinuations quite happily and slid down the fork until he was straddling a branch closer to the ground. "The tree." he answered in complete seriousness. "She misses the sun."<br>Fuuma's eyebrows went up, and up. "Does she know when it's going to stop raining?" he asked after a long moment.  
>Kamui shrugged. <em>"Do you know when it will stop raining?"<em> he asked the tree just for good measure.  
>There was a pause in which Fuuma's bangs were pressed into his face, the water droplets sliding down his glasses. And then there was an image of the sun sinking below the trees and the stars rising, Orion bright among the riot of light, before they all vanished into the next dawn. Then there was a flash of puddles drying underneath their roots.<br>"It'll stop raining sometime tomorrow, probably midday." he said to the man below, who possibly seemed to be unsure of whether to be amused or worried.  
>"<em>."<em> the rain informed him dryly, followed by an image first of Seishirou and Subaru's hands looped and twined about each other in peaceful harmony. Then the two of them, faint smiles and walking back along the path of trees. _"Happinesslovelife."_  
>He <em>could<em> live without the rain telling him of everything they were doing. "Seishirou and Subaru are coming back from wherever they ran off." he told Fuuma. "Whatever problem they had has evidently been fixed."  
>"Oh good." Fuuma said with honest meaning behind the words. "It would be bad if he managed to screw up after chasing Subaru for all this time."<br>Kamui frowned at him. "How long was he chasing us?"  
>Fuuma shrugged, the rainwater running down his neck in a way that he definitely did <em>not<em> find enticing in the way that it made the veins stand out just enough from where he was perched to still have a good view. "Since they first met." he said with a causality that belied the power of the words. "Seishirou wasn't going to give up that easily after Subaru made such an impression on him."  
>Kamui's frown turned thoughtful. "I guess he has been pretty determined then."<br>Fuuma snorted in amusement. "Try _obsessed_. Nii-san doesn't take easily to just any person, but Subaru seems to be exactly who he needs to be complete."  
>He couldn't help but agree with that, thinking of both the images the rain had sent, and the way that Seishirou looked at his twin.<br>Before, that thought would have brought a wave of anger and caused him to make Subaru jump worlds, no matter how much Subaru wanted to stay there. But now, although it still burned in a way that he wasn't able to let go of yet, he was able to look past it.  
>Fuuma opened the door to the inside again. "Anyway, I came out to tell you that the bath works, so I'm going to use it now." His glasses winked from the dim light inside and in the air. "I'll make sure I don't take up all of the hot water if it lasts for any decent amount of time."<br>Then he was vanishing inside in a cloud of dampness and amused energy that clung to him in a vaguely disconcerting way.  
>The rain seemed to thin a little, no longer sheeting in a way that transformed the earth into an impassible labyrinth of mud and weeds. <em>"Honestycaregentlenesstruth."<em> it said with a pleased undertone. _"."_  
>"I <em>don't<em> want to talk about it." he told the rain with no small amount of vitriol. "It isn't your business."  
>He got the impression that the rain chose to ignore him with all the dignity of an offended cat, and so turned his attention back to the tree that he rested on. "Do you know what happened to the people who used to live here?" he asked with genuine curiosity.<br>The tree warmed slightly and he closed his eyes to sort through the images that flashed into his mind. Two little girls with long blond hair, running through the grass at the base of their roots. Laughter, smiles, sunlight, a mother with darker hair that they ran to with identical smiles of joy.  
>Then a shadowed day, rain that threatened to fall without ever succeeding, and one of the blond girls lying at the roots, still and eyes open without seeing. Her sister shaking her wildly, and the tree unable to do anything. Then the mother and surviving girl leaving, walking away on the wind.<br>Leaving the house behind and alone. "So they never came back?" he asked, although he was pretty sure that he already knew the answer.  
>There was a brief thought of the house just beginning to fall apart, and he didn't need to ask anymore.<br>_"Sadnesslossonehalf."_ The rain added in with the multitude of each drop hitting him. _"Homeforgottensistersguardian."_

_"Onewalksalone."_

Kamui frowned in growing annoyance "So there's a ghost in this house?"  
><em>"Lonelywithoutharmsmilesforall."<em> The rain answered without answering and he groaned in frustration.  
>"I'd rather talk to a cat." he informed it with all of the annoyance that was growing with each lack of coherent sentence.<br>The rain either ignored him or deigned not to talk to him, which were really the same thing, and he looked at the space where the forest began again.  
><em>"Twohalveswalkstartrail."<em> the rain said_. "Thefuturehasyettobedecided."_  
>He looked up again and was rewarded with two drops landing right at the corner of his eyes. "Wait, <em>what<em>?"  
>There was the faint splash of footsteps smacking mud, and he looked over, to see Subaru and Seishirou still walking, looking incredibly at peace. Some level of tension drained from him at the fact that all of the bright emotion in Subaru's face was mirrored by Seishirou's.<br>All he had to do was make sure that the man remembered that he was not completely free of their bet. "You almost lost." he called down to the two of them, or more accurately the taller of them. "That's your one and only chance."  
>Seishirou's expression did not change, but he was certain that the man was at least thinking of their conversation.<br>Subaru smiled, not quite as blindingly bright as when targeted at Seishirou, but still very happy. "Were you talking to the tree, Kamui?" he called up.  
>They stopped underneath the tree, with bangs that were completely stuck to their faces turned to the sky. "I was talking to the rain." he told his brother. "It told me about what you were doing, and that it's not going to stop falling until tomorrow. Late tomorrow."<br>Seishirou's face held a vague expression of displeasure, and it struck him that the man was as fond of the rain as he was.  
>Subaru smiled up at him. "We're going to go back inside." he said softly, and he did the slightest of pulls on their linked hands.<br>Kamui made a flapping motion with a careless hand, waving them off with a surprising amount of amusement. "Get dry, be smart." he called to his brother, who promptly blushed brightly and walked with great purpose towards the door, towing Seishirou along with him.  
>"Let's go, Seishirou-san." he heard Subaru say, carefully staring at neither of them, and he suppressed a laugh at his brother's level of embarrassment. They vanished through the door; a pair of shadows linked by their hands and something invisible that stood stronger than all the great works of the world.<br>He leaned back in the tree, and allowed the feeling of contentment continue to seep through him and relax him further. Even in the rain, he was able to protect and shield all of the ones inside, even Seishirou.

Slowly, quietly the voices that the rain carried in the memory of water crept up his body, the small individual drops sliding down his skin as they told him everything they remembered, from the rooftops to the trees, to the earth and all that walked it. He saw a thousand smiles, heard a thousand peals of laughter, and felt a thousand waves of sadness from those who stood alone in the rain.

_"Beautifuldancervoicelistener_." it took him, and Kamui smiled to know that it meant him.  
>The tree made a light groaning sound as the ground shifted under it, and settled, cradling him in the strong boughs that stretched for the sky.<br>He was peaceful, and he embraced that feeling, and let go of the last dregs of panic and the need for flight that he had carried for so long.

The faint light in the sky deepened, though the rain did not slacken, and he recognized the onset of night.  
>"I should get down while I can still see." he told the tree with amusement, even though he would be able to see his path for a long while yet.<br>There was the rustle of branches and he ran his hands over the fork he had rested in silent thanks.  
>The ground threatened to suck him in by the sheer power of the amount of water in it, and the mud climbed up his pants with each grumbling step.<br>He reached the door without too much trouble, despite the disproportionate amount of complaining he had indulged in, but when he put his hand on the handle, there was no pull to enter the shelter of the building.  
>There was a small bench underneath the window where the others could see him. Two rather muddy steps, and he had reached it.<br>Kamui curled up on it, and allowed the faint overhang to block him from the heaviest of the downpour.  
>He watched the world for a long time. The fire was really nice after being in the rain for at least half an hour, and Subaru could understand why Seishirou had forgone getting his own towel when he could stand by it instead.<br>Fuuma stood by the window that looked down onto his twin, a soft, yet confused smile on his lips. Subaru himself stood behind him, one of the towels that he had pulled out of a dusty closet with doors that had required a gentle clawing before they opened, hanging off his shoulders and creating the illusion that it was drying him off.  
>"Who is Kamui talking to?" Fuuma asked, his eyes glittering with concern from behind his glasses, though the smile never quite left.<br>Subaru looked out the window as well, to see Kamui curled up on the bench, looking rather like a drenched kitten and talking with an animated expression of annoyance on his face. He chuckled lightly as Kamui thrust out a hand sharply before drawing back in a more calming manner.  
>"Kamui can hear the voices of things that cannot speak for themselves." He explained as Seishirou sat next to him on the floor, relaxing by the fire with his eyes shut. "The rain, the trees, the earth itself. If it can't talk normally, then he can hear it."<br>Fuuma's eyebrows went up in surprise and he cast a quick glance towards Kamui again. "Really?" he wondered out loud, his question not sounding like one that he expected to be answered normally or sensibly.  
>Subaru sat on the floor and leaned into Seishirou's affectionate touch, feeling that strong arm slide around his shoulder, and smiled happily at the other man before answering Fuuma's accidental question.<br>"Yes." he said seriously. "It does sound strange, doesn't it? He can talk to animals, plants, and some things that aren't necessarily alive, such as the rain. He can also talk to those who have died." he said, nuzzling into Seishirou's jaw with the faintest of blushes, before closing his eyes.  
>Seishirou made a low humming noise and held him closer, and Subaru smiled at the man with quiet joy.<br>Fuuma seemed to shudder at the thought of Kamui talking to dead people. "He can talk to ghosts?" he asked, his usual smile shrinking away.  
>Subaru shook his head and laughed lightly, "No, nothing like that. He can talk to the remains of plants and animals. Or, to explain it differently, he can hear the echo of what they once were rather than what they are now. It's kind of hard to explain." Subaru trailed off as Seishirou pressed soft lips right behind his ear, sliding his free hand into Seishirou's and entwining their fingers together, losing focus on the subject and targeting it on the person who meant everything to him.<br>He heard Fuuma make a sound of amusement, but he wasn't really paying attention by then.

They had almost progressed to kissing, Fuuma noted with a smile, watching the vampires who had completely lost track of his presence in the room.  
>It was good to see that they were happy, after everything that had happened between them. To see his brother honestly caught up enough with Subaru that he forgot to leave the coldness that he knew so well up, and smile from the heart, no matter how small it was.<br>Although watching them kiss wasn't really on his lists of interests, he averted his eyes with a smirk as they indeed progressed to that part of the whole thing.  
>It was the smallest of motions to leave the room and shut the door behind him, in order to give them their privacy. Though gathering material to torment them would be quite amusing, they had things to catch up on. He walked to the front of the old house, past the decrepit kitchen and collapsed living room and then up a set of stairs that creaked alarmingly.<br>As he got to the top, he noticed the enormous amount of dust and cobwebs up there, creating the image of a Joro-gumo residence.  
>He really hoped that none of them had taken up residency here; because despite their preferences, it would be really bad.<br>He fought down the urge to cough as the dust swirled in the air like flecks of stars, breaking down the webs that were in his path as he continued to explore. Whoever had owned this place before had obviously been quite rich, or had been really invested in making a nice house.  
>There was a door that required the helpful force of a solid kick before it would open, and beyond lay a hallway that spoke of saddened footsteps.<br>Fuuma walked warily down the hall, not putting his weight on each floorboard until he was sure that it wasn't going to break under him. Near the end rested an old closet, the door locked in an ajar position, and he felt a twinge of curiosity as he wrapped his hand around the rusty doorknob.  
>Several tugs of varying force later he opened the stubborn door and let the faint light that streamed in from the clouded window, eyes quickly running over and recognizing the objects within.<br>A dust coated water heater sat dully before him, with a gas pipe leading to the bottom of it, a long-dead burner showing where the flames would be, and the gas tank next to it was nearly full.  
>He looked cautiously to the dusty floor as he walked into the room, noting the remains of rats and mice that littered the area, and found a section of the wall that obviously didn't match up with the rest of the house.<br>Carefully kneeling down so that he wasn't actually putting his knees on the floor, he pulled at the boards until they collapsed, and then tugged out a heavy box. Fuuma picked it up, examined it for a moment, and reveled in the quiet triumph of discovering everything he needed at once.  
>The box he had discovering was a tool box, and he held it gingerly as he stood back up. For awhile he simply stood there, admiring the water heater and staring at it with amusement.<br>'So we have plumbing, a water heater, and yet there's no electricity? How so very odd this is', he thought with a general good humor as he at last turned away from the heater and started walking towards the bathroom that was at the other end of the hall.  
>The door Kamui had apparently kicked in earlier was propped up awkwardly against the wall outside of the room, and the few candles that had not fallen prey to mice and age were filling the room with a shaky amount of light.<br>It would have to do.  
>He walked to the old shower, with the showerhead just lying in the tub. Fuuma smiled and took a rusty wrench out from the tool box and began to hunt for the pieces that he needed. Although it took a small amount of trial and error to connect them, everything seemed to put itself together once he remembered the rules of pipes. He also checked each piece as he picked it up for signs of rusting or being worn through, but each one was in decently good condition. Which made some level of sense since the house had been practically untouched when they arrived, in near perfect condition, aside from the pleasant addition of rodents and spiders; and it was not nearly old enough for the metal inside to be unusable.<br>When he finished with returning the shower to its original state of usefulness, he carefully placed the tools he had used back into their sections of the box and turned towards the door. To his surprise, mostly because he thought he'd hear anyone's approaching, Kamui leaned languorously against the door frame, soaked coat leaving a pool of water around his feet as he pushed saturated bangs out of his face. Fuuma offered him a smile as he walked over to the dust-coated sink; where the moth-attacked towels had been placed earlier.  
>Quietly he shook one out and handed it to the drenched vampire, who took it with a care and grace more characteristic to his brother. Kamui stood there with it for a moment, staring at Fuuma with violently violet eyes as he began to test the pipes to make sure there wouldn't be leaks in his handiwork. After a moment he sighed and turned away to take the old towel and begin to brush at the water that was dripping down his face. "What are you doing?" he asked with a small smirk, his smart mouth taking its rightful place as king on his lips. "Molesting the pipes?"<br>"Fixing the shower," he replied calmly. "It should be up and running soon, if I'm right about the pipes. You can take one tonight, if you want." he said with a smirk as he watched Kamui attack his clothes more vigorously with the towel.  
>Kamui rolled his eyes with dry tolerance, tossing the soaked towel aside and matching Fuuma stare for stare. "You don't mind if I get out of these wet things?" he asked, knowing full well that Fuuma wasn't going to do a thing to stop him.<br>Fuuma motioned him to go on as he took a wrench to one of the looser bolts in the piping system. Kamui promptly shed the long coat so that it lay in a devastated heap on the floor, and the shirt followed it a second later, being tossed in the skin with nary a care. Kamui was shivering as the cold air hit his skin, but he seemed uncaring of his state of half-nudity in front of Fuuma, who had pretty much stopped working. Muscles worked beneath his arms as he twisted the shirt with a little more violence than required, and Fuuma watched him as he did so, the bunching and sliding of muscles before unseen very relevant to his interest. There was not a single pound of unnecessary flesh visible at all, and he could see all the lithe, slender lines that the smaller man was built along. Skin almost translucent in the paleness, yet colored rosy by the flickering candles and his ribs were visible, but not dangerously so. There was a cat's deadly grace to each movement as he _slid off his pants_ without a single shred of modesty stopping him from getting out of his wet clothes.  
>For some unfathomable reason, he felt his face heat up, and then looked away from the vampire, feeling incredibly awkward for being such a voyeur. Yet he found his eyes still drifting back with a darker desire.<br>Kamui left his shirt by the sink as he wrung out his pants with the same vitriol that he so often targeted at the world, and then took a fresh towel in hand, the tattered fabric sliding over candlelit skin with ease.  
>There was something very careful in him, as if he'd maybe done it for someone else with the same amount of gentility as himself.<br>Yet the chances of continuing to watch were cut off as Kamui pulled the somewhat drier shirt back over his head, fully aware of Fuuma's wandering eyes and traitorously flushed face. The pants went back on with only a small amount of difficulty, being less malleable than the shirt. He turned to leave, the coat snatched up in long fingers, but stopped in the doorway, bare feet leaving prints in the dust. Without looking back, there was a quiet sound as he began to speak. "Thanks for fixing the shower." There was the whisper of footsteps and the heavier sound of the coat dragging as Kamui vanished from view, and Fuuma shook his head with a smile, trying to clear the blush from his face and going to back to work.  
>It was always nice to know that his work was appreciated.<br>He worked on the shower for maybe an hour after that, doing his best to make sure that everything was working as well as could be hoped for, as well as lighting the gas under the water tank so that it would do its job properly. For now, it was working.  
>With hope tingling through his hands, he turned on the shower, and although at first there was the sound of water rushing through long empty pipes, there was first a dribble of yellowy water that rapidly cleared and grew stronger until a stream of clean, warm water fell through the head like a summer rainstorm.<br>He thrust a mental fist into the air, a rush of triumph filling his chest with a heady rush, then calmed himself and turned off the water instead of wasting it.  
>He walked back over to the closet and tapped the gas tank, pleased that the echo proved there was a <em>lot <em>still in there, and put the tool box away. He suppressed another mental first pump, and then went down the darkening stairs to tell Kamui and the others about his success.  
>As he rounded the bend where a single lamp flickered with its wick more than half used up, he saw Kamui walking through the hallway, and he stopped.<br>Fuuma caught up to him easily, ignoring the little temptation to flush with images of uncovered arms that he had remembered eerily well. "The shower is fixed. You can use it when you like."  
>Kamui's smile was as bare and thin as winter trees, but it was a smile nevertheless, and was enough to send small waves of joy rippling through him. "Thank you." he said softly, and walked past Fuuma without any of the nature of pressing him against the wall with all the intensity of <em>angry vampire<em>; which he had been good enough at ignoring anyway.  
>He watched bare, pale feet vanish from sight, following his own footprints, and smiled. The tool box had left little rusty marks all over the bottom of the tub, Kamui noted with the slightest of scowls. Just little brown marks that looked rather disconcerting in the candlelight, as if they were actually moving.<br>Just because they _weren't_ didn't really make much different when he considered the number of things that had lain on the ground at some point.  
>But if the shower worked like Fuuma had said it would, then it wouldn't really matter.<br>He could understand why Subaru and Seishirou had been curled up together right by the fire, close enough for the littlest sparks that survived the leap from the hearth to catch in ashy flakes on their clothes, it was _freezing_ in this house, and the amount of water that his clothes had managed to hold was not a help at all.  
>He suppressed the urge to shiver at the memory of the cold, that had felt like it would soak into his bones and never come back out, and flipped the water dial on to its hottest setting.<br>There was a rush of water that came out a sickening yellow before clearing, and as he slid the damp, chilly clothes off, little wisps of steam began to emanate from around the showerhead.  
>He reached up and let the water run over one hand, and sighed in content. Compared to the rest of the house, the heat felt <em>amazingly <em>good on his skin.  
>There was no door left on the frame, and he trusted that no one would want to sneak in and see him in his unclad glory. The soggy fabric hit the ground with a sad thud as he stepped into the tub, the hot water running down his body and chasing away all of the chills that still wanted to lurk in the contours of his skin. He let out a soft and shaky sigh, tilting his head back into the spray and closing his eyes. Pulling on the oiled fabric that served as a shower curtain as far as it would go, he let the liquid warmth run down his back, succumbing to the heat that enveloped his body, warmth that it seemed like he hadn't felt in so long. He wanted to stay in there until every drop of hot water had been eked out of the ancient heater, but knew that it was a really selfish thought to have. After all, his twin at the least shouldn't be left out of this little space of heaven.<br>Just as the thought crossed his mind, there were the soft sounds of footsteps wandering down the hall in a gentle rhythm. By the type of shoes that resounded against the dusty floor, and the little whispers of a heavy coat, he knew who padded down the hall like the panthers of home. He turned his head to the doorway, the water sliding down his body with long eloquence, and Subaru smiled there with his eternal kindness. The reason for his appearance was a folded bundle of cloth in his arms, and he set it on the edge of the sink.  
>"I brought you some clothes," he said, averting his eyes with a large amount of misplaced modesty. "Fuuma found a bedroom with a wardrobe that seemed to miss the largest attacks of mice, and I thought you might like some clothes that aren't soaking wet and freezing. I know they're not really your style, but it's better than walking around in wet clothes all day." Subaru added as Kamui reluctantly turned the shower off and stepped out, not caring about the way that his twin carefully did not look at him.<br>Subaru walked back to the door, and casting the faintest of looks back to see Kamui drying off with a third raggedy towel, and smiled. "I'll leave you to it, then. We'll be downstairs waiting for you when you're done." Then he was walking off, the echoes of his shoes trailing off as he vanished from sight, sound and perhaps all knowledge of existence.  
>Kamui stood by himself for a short minute, before picking up the articles of clothing that Subaru had brought him. They fit loosely, but were better than nothing, and the steam coating the air made them much warmer than what his other options were, but they were still not what he would have chosen to wear.<br>He studied himself in the cloudy mirror, the long black coat making his face look sharper than usual, the buckles on it shimmering in the low candle light, and the lace on the end of the sleeves bothering his wrists. All in all, it looked exactly like the kind of thing that his mother would have dressed him in if he'd had just a _shred_ less resistance than he did. He made a growling noise low in his throat, knowing full well exactly what comments he was going to get.  
>He straightened up, gathered up his courage and what was left of his dignity after this, as well as his previous outfit; turned the corner out of the room and walked down the stairs, relying on the benefits of being a vampire to enhance his sight so that he did not step on anything that wasn't the floor.<br>Subaru stood at the end of the staircase, his clothes also changed, but into something more dignified than his own ensemble. At least he could see the reasoning behind it, since Subaru's clothes were not only soaked, but there were streaks of mud climbing well up to splash even on his shirt. Kamui sighed to himself as his older brother led him into the room that they had pretty much ended up living in.  
>The couches had been pushed back against the wall, and farther from the fire. To compensate for this, two unfamiliar mattresses lay right where the sparks couldn't jump far enough to catch on the fabric, and could still catch the heat that filled up the room. A veritable armada of blankets littered each one, along with a few pillows, and Kamui fought back to urge to sneeze in the clouds of dust that billowed from them as Seishirou shook out one with a violent snap until the original blue of the fabric became visible under the dust. Fuuma was stoking the fire, embers fluttering about in pulsing convulsions, and he turned around to greet them as Kamui stalked in, glaring at Seishirou to prevent the man from making any smart comments.<br>Fuuma looked up with a smile, the poker in his hand doing absolutely nothing to prevent him from looking very childish. Kamui avoided scowling at him by sheer dint of turning the annoyance towards Seishirou, who had indeed opened his mouth to say something. "If you mock this, I will call you a priest and make you swear vows of chastity." he threatened, spinning around to fix the man with a stare just hard enough to burn.  
>Seishirou snorted with amusement, and showed his opinion of this by catching Subaru by the waist, to his brother's bright blush and just as radiant smile.<br>He walked over by the fire with his armload of clothes and lay them where they would dry, though the price would be a lot of wrinkles. Wrinkles, he could stand.

Probably.

Fuuma finished with his fire stabbing as Kamui straightened the right leg of his pants to a more precise angle, and sat on one of the heaps of blankets with barely a rough sound in his throat for the amount of dust that swirled up into the air; lit by the growing blaze like little demented fireflies. "We've been talking." he began, the inclining of his head indicating the other two vampires in the room as Kamui sat on the cool floor in front of him. "About what to do next; and we decided that when the rain stops, we should go on our way to another world."  
>Kamui frowned in thought. It really wasn't a bad idea, since although it wasn't that bad of a place to stay, it was distinctly lacking in many things he had grown accustomed to. "Which world?" he asked Fuuma, even though any of the three could have told him, if they'd discussed it that much without him.<br>Subaru was the one who replied, standing serenely right next to the other mattress as Seishirou messed with the blankets, ignoring them with practiced calm. The angle that his twin stood at left him half in the firelight, and half shadowed, so that he seemed to be both halves of a coin; innocent and corrupted. "I want to go home, to Magval." he said softly.  
>"Why home?" he asked, maybe a little sharper than he meant to, but there didn't seem to be a reason for that decision, since he knew for a fact that there would be at least several people <em>very<em> displeased with Subaru's choice of partner.  
>"Ah, well," Subaru began, and the sentence fell apart for a second as Seishirou reached up and tugged on his hand to indicate that he was supposed to be sitting down now, sinking as if boneless to the mattress next to the pleased man. "Since there isn't a need to run anymore, I hoped that we could go home. There's no need to run, since Seishirou-san hasn't been our enemy…" he said in a half-babbled state, probably not aware that he had basically said the same thing twice. Seishirou proved to be the distraction still, having tucked one of the many less dusty blankets around his shoulders.<br>Subaru's reaction to this action was to turn his face to Seishirou's, gently brushing their noses together before being kissed, both of them having their eyes fall shut in relative peace. Kamui averted his eyes as they continued to kiss for a few moments, the sound of it clearly audible in a very embarrassing manner. But aside from the reasonable desire to not watch his brother engaged in less innocent things, there was only a little anger, and it was easily dismissed. Aside from whatever had caused their morning disagreement, they seemed wholly at peace, like some inner equilibrium had finally been restored.  
>So although he still had his own issues with certain acts that Seishirou had definitely committed, he could learn to let go enough that it wouldn't fog up the issue between them.<br>Kamui looked over at Fuuma, who had begun to straighten out the blankets on the other mattress, lying them flat as if it were a proper bed as opposed to his brother's little nest heap. He too, had been colored by the fireplace, but as opposed to his twin, he was gilded, and his skin glowed in the flickering light. He had the sudden desire to take off the man's glasses in order to meet those startlingly gentle amber eyes. He fought down that urge, crossing his arms across his chest stubbornly and tucking his fingers into his armpits to prevent momentary urges from overwhelming him. Fuuma offered him a smile as he saw the action, and then proved that he completely misinterpreted it by opening his mouth. "If you're feeling cold, it's warmer over by the hearth."  
>Kamui could have corrected him on his error; but that would have required explaining what he was actually doing, and he was exceedingly more reluctant to do that. So he shifted silently across the floor till he was sitting right by the fire again, little ashy embers fluttering out and alighting on his face like freckles.<br>Subaru appeared to come back to himself as Seishirou released their mouths, and Kamui watched with distinct amusement as Subaru violently blushed, and opened his mouth for a minute to say something, before closing it again when no sound came out.  
>He took pity on his older brother though, and cut him off as Subaru tried again to say something, probably an apology, "We can talk about world options tomorrow. Go to sleep." he ordered, but without malice of any kind.<br>Seishirou somehow managed to slip into the nest of blankets without dislodging the precarious heap, drawing Subaru in after him until they were tucked neatly into their little cocoon. The way that they were curled about each other suggested that it was not the first time they'd done something like that. Kamui was reminded of the twenty-two years that he hadn't heard a word except from what his stepfather would release, fragments of dreams, of his twin secluded in another world and somehow happy despite the loss of his family.  
>Subaru hadn't ever actually explained where he had been in that stretch of time, but from the little ways that he and Seishirou seemed to know <em>everything<em> about being comfortable around each other, he was beginning to suspect that the answer was more obvious than he had been wanting it to be.  
>But there wasn't anything he could do about the past, and the present seemed content to move on without his input.<br>The house around them creaked, and Kamui listened to it as it began to breathe, little footsteps of a memory of a ghost drifting about, so quiet that he wasn't sure he really heard them. He caught himself with his eyelids sliding shut in the silence of the moment, the only sound that cared to break the rhythm being the little popping sounds of the fire as it quietly echoed the breath of the world. Fuuma had watched him for a time, and when Kamui had smirked and flapped his hand towards the free mattress, Fuuma had caught the hint that he was supposed to be going to bed now, obeying with a sort of amused tolerance. In time, his breath had evened out with the night.  
>He was aware that he should probably go to sleep too, that Fuuma probably wouldn't even mind if he climbed beneath the comforters, but there was a part of him that needed to watch the little tongues of fire licking through the wood, needed to let the hours pass him by in a tide of the deep.<br>_"::I see the way you look at him.::"_ The voice yanked him from his pleasant state of meditation, crackly and demanding, yet there was a sense of amusement in its tone. Kamui cast his eyes about the room as he looked for the speaker with an urgent air. None of the others in the room stirred though, and after a second, he realized it had to be something that normally had no voice. As much as Subaru would have been a more appropriate bearer of their mother's gifts, for some reason he didn't have them.  
>But just because he could hear them, didn't mean that he was always in a mood to talk to them, especially when they started conversations by attempting to torment him. He turned his eyes to the fire and did his best to pretend that he hadn't heard anything.<br>To no avail, of course. _"::You are listening to me.::"_ the voice hissed, less pleased with itself than the first time. Kamui glanced up for a second, before eyeing the fire place suspiciously. There didn't seem to be anything else in the room that could even try to talk to him, but there was always the fleeting hope. Fire wasn't his most admirable ally, if it could even be called that.  
>He groaned as he stretched out his legs, glaring at the fire as the flames burned a little lower. "::Don't make faces, it isn't nice.::" the voice reprimanded, sounding something like a cross between his mother being annoyed, and his sister trying to prevent him from getting in more trouble.<br>"Who, or should I say _what_ is speaking to me?" he whispered to the empty air, knowing full well what it was, yet still irrationally hoping that there would be a mouse or bat tucked into the shadowy corners. The fire crackled, or cackled, the wood under it sending up a shower of sparks that faded into the air just inches from his face.  
><em>"::I am. Who else would it be?::"<em> It said, burning brighter with anticipation. _"::If you were expecting something else like the little vermin that run around in the walls, they won't come within ten feet of all of you. Little cowards.::"  
><em>Kamui groaned again in defeat, letting his head fall backwards so that only the flecks were visible. Nothing besides the animals could speak to him so clearly, not even the plant's voices were that well-shaped. Fire could talk to him directly, without the use of images and skewed words that blurred and ran together. It was one of the few things that could, but it was often too proud to stoop to talk to him. Why had the flame decided to speak up, when usually it couldn't be bothered to even answer him in other times?  
>He sighed and returned to looking at it, propping his head against one hand. "What do you want?" he asked, giving up the attempt to be all proud and haughty. He was finding himself too tired to put up a facade against something that would only see through it as easily as Fuuma breathed slowly through his nose, waiting. <em>"::You're hiding your feelings.::" <em>it said, and if it could do so, Kamui was sure that there would be a large smirk on its face. _"::Even your brother can see it as plain as day. You lo~ove the pretty human boy.::"_  
>Kamui recoiled back from the prancing fire as he blushed, violently and completely destroying his composure. "I'm not in love with Fuuma!" he yelped, before clapping a hand over his mouth and hissing the rest of the sentence in a much quieter tone. "Love is not an option, not with who he is. Besides, why would I be in love with him? No, I not have feelings for him." he was dimly aware that he was repeating himself, trying to prove his point, although he got the feeling that the fire didn't believe him at all.<br>He was arguing with _fire_, and _losing_; and he felt utterly ridiculous. Kamui growled at the flame, baring his fangs, and then froze as Subaru made a light sound, stirring in his bed to throw an arm over Seishirou's sleeping chest, before being cradled closer by the sleeping man. He waited with baited breath for one of them to wake up, but after a long moment where absolutely nothing else happened, he forced himself to relax  
><em>"::No need to get angry.::"<em> the fire crooned with obvious amusement. _"::I was just pointing out the obvious. Why don't you just admit it? You two are clearly meant for each other.::"_ the flame said, its voice coming off as hushed and wise. The tendrils of flame that licked over the wood slicked down for a moment, before standing up again. _"::Besides, then you can scratch those pesky itches, loosen up a little.::"_  
>Kamui snorted in disdain, refusing to blush more at the insinuations that he was feeling tense. He sat up a little more attentively to fix violet eyes on it, careful not to wake his twin or companions. "We are complete and utter opposites. It would never work." He huffed, scooting closer to the warmth, despite his annoyance with the fire. It was freezing, and he couldn't spare the dignity to steal one of Fuuma's blankets.<br>_"::Opposites attract. Haven't you learned that by now? Otherwise the other two would never have made it anywhere.::" _it purred, clearly amused._ "::But that argument does you no good, because you two are far more alike than you'll admit_._::"_  
>Kamui snarled at it in abject frustration, louder than before, and to his barely concealed horror, Subaru woke and sat up, staring at him with sleepy green eyes from underneath mussed bangs. "Is everything all right Kamui?" he asked, pushing strands of black hair out of his eyes.<br>Kamui shrugged and smiled a bit, even though he was fully aware that his twin would probably see through it without a problem. "Everything's fine. Go back to sleep, you still look tired."  
>Subaru gave him a piercing glance, but let it go; shifting slightly, sinking back into his nest to promptly be pulled into Seishirou's arms. He was pretty certain that his twin fell back asleep almost instantly, but he still let a few moments pass before returning his attention to the fire, that had returned to dancing about like a normal flame.<br>_"::That was close.::"_ it said, growing brighter again. Kamui remained silent for a while, and it took the chance to continue. _"::You know, it's strange, now that I think about it, I've never met a being that could actually converse with me. It's unusual, but also a very nice turn of events. What's your name?::" _it asked, curiosity filling its tone, and he was reminded of his sister, leaning over something while she waited for an answer to whatever innocent question she had posed.  
>Kamui let out a breath, and some of the tension from the previous conversation melted away, although not all of it. "My name is Kamui." he replied, moving closer to the flame. He held out his hands in an attempt to heat them without getting close enough to burn his hands, and the flame brightened in answer, adding to the warmth.<br>_"::Nice to meet you. I don't have a name, since I'm only a flame, but I suppose you can call me Hiki.::"_ it said, the tone beginning pleasant, and growing dry and sullen as it reached the end.  
>Kamui lifted his eyebrows. "Why don't you have a name of your own?" he asked, watching the trembling of the fire in the pause between moments. <em>"::Flames don't live long enough to be named, we are fleeting and contain no life outside of what we take away. But in answer to the other half of your question- and don't give me that look, I knew you were going to ask me- I've heard that name before, and I liked it.::" <em>it finished, the trails of light sinking down with a shower of sparks onto one of the dying logs.  
>For a moment Kamui wished that he could see its expression; he was beginning to feel like he was talking to himself, though the evidence proved otherwise.<br>The room was silent for a moment before it continued; _"::You look tired. You should sleep. But I'd like another three logs first please::" _  
>Kamui wondered in a sort of half drowned way how it knew what human expressions were, but tossed four logs into the fire, watching the embers leap around the dry wood with a surprising joy. Then he yawned, and realized that he really was tired, more tired than he'd expected.<br>He cast a glance towards the couch, pushed far enough from the flame that he'd probably wake up covered in frost, then towards the mattress with a sleeping Fuuma.  
>Practicality easily won out over a desire to not give in to teasing comments, and he crawled his way towards the mattress and gently began to move the comforters about so he could slip into the warmth that the human created.<br>The fire crackled and he looked over at it again. _"::Kamui, one more thing. Do not let him go. Beware of the consequences. The Sakura fubuki will rise to defend, but you have more power over him.::"_ it warned him, the brilliance of it dying down to darken the room.

Kamui slipped into the little space left to him under the comforters, and was surrounded by warmth. He sighed in content and resisted the urge to rub himself against the comfort like one of their panthers.  
>He fell asleep like that, comfortable and warm, with the gentle light of the fire continuing to play over his eyelids for a long time. He woke in a very warm state, with his tangle of blankets sprawled all over him so that most of them ended up over his torso, and with Subaru curled up in his arms, completely still, but awake and watching him.<br>"Good morning Seishirou-san." the vampire greeted, a smile curving his face into the quiet joy he had actually missed during their journey.  
>He decided to skip the talking part and just kiss him, and Subaru responded by pressing closer to him, eyelashes fluttering shut briefly as their lips caught against each other.<br>He pulled away after a minute, and got a look somewhere between loving and why-did-you-stop? from his partner, green eyes bright in the early morning.  
>Seishirou looked out from his cocoon, and saw that there was a gray, but much brighter light filtering through the dusky windows, and the eternal sound of rain had at last died away, with only the gentle whisk of wind outside adding any noise to the suddenly silent air. "The rain stopped sometime in the middle of the night." Subaru whispered, his breath whispering over his neck in a caress.<br>"Is that so?" he hissed back, noting the duo of lumps on the other mattress, and Fuuma's occasional muttering. "Were you awake when this happened?"  
>Wisps of light black hair ghosted over his neck like phantom raindrops as Subaru shook his head in denial. "If it wasn't raining when I woke up, and it was when I went to sleep, then it stopped in the middle of the night." his breath was a whisper of laughter and logic, and it amused Seishirou to hear it.<br>There was a rustle of blankets as one of the others in the room turned over, seemingly restless, before settling back down. Subaru stretched elegantly, carefully avoiding whacking any of his limbs against Seishirou, before sitting up, the blankets sliding away from him like a water poured out of a glass.  
>He caught one of those slender hands as Subaru moved to stand up. "Where are you going?"<br>He got a light smile and green eyes that glittered with an amusement that he had carefully cultivated over several years. "To explore again, now that it should be bright enough to see better." A soft chuckle, and Subaru was standing up with his innate feline grace inherent in each motion. "If you can bear to drag yourself out of bed, then you can join me." he invited, standing still, as if he already knew what Seishirou's answer would be.  
>Which, of course, he <em>did,<em> and Seishirou reluctantly left his nest, letting none of the stiffness that plagued him upon movement show in his actions. "You need to ask?"  
>Subaru made another soft sound of laughter, and then looked over at the younger two still sleeping. "Who do you think will wake first?"<br>Seishirou considered the likelihood of Kamui's tossing and turning waking up his brother, versus Fuuma's habit of sleep-talking, and came to the more likely of the conclusions. "Your twin, since Fuuma can still sleep through anything." he said as Subaru walked over to one of the windows, and brushed a pale hand against the coating of cobwebs and dust. "Is it just the filth that's making the light all gray?"  
>Subaru looked out for a long moment, looking up for something in the sky. "No, it's still cloudy out. But there's birds flying around, and the clouds aren't very solid. There'll be sun soon." He stepped away from the window, and past the dead fireplace, to stand next to him. "There's a locked door right across the hallway from us."<br>Seishirou took one silent step towards the doorway, and another, and cleared his way across the floor easily, Subaru at his side like the shadow of a cat.  
>His claws made quick work of the old wood, and Subaru caught the pieces before they could impact and make noise. There was a wave of dust that rose, along with a gust of air that stunk of age, a sealed space, and less pleasant things. Subaru had one hand held in front of his nose, and Seishirou didn't consider it a foolish action. "What died in <em>here<em>?" he asked out loud, not expecting an answer from the room itself.  
>Subaru turned around and pulled the door to their sleeping space shut. "I don't want to pollute their air, Fuuma still needs it." he explained, the vibrations of his voice barely above a whisper, yet it still seemed to carry unnaturally through the whole house.<br>Seishirou accepted this explanation with good grace, since he was also interested in his brother not losing his life due to a careless action that could have been easily preventable, and walked into the room, glasses going up the bridge of his nose with ease as he glanced through the thick trails of dust that spun through the air. "I don't think it was a human that died in here." he told the vampire that cautiously poked his way through the grime on the floor. "Otherwise it would smell even more putrid."  
>Subaru nodded in response. "No, it was probably something much smaller." His eyes flashed their strangely horrible gold for a moment, pupils slitting as he stepped with the brilliant grace of a dancer, not hampered by the different positions that his legs twisted with each moment. "But not a mouse or a rat, they smell less... <em>unclean<em>." the word came out as a darker hiss, one that he recognized very well.  
>There was a large hummock of dust in the far corner, and Subaru's heavy coat, donned over the conglomeration of stray clothes he'd picked out before, whisked through the dust, leaving spiraling trails that followed themselves up into the air. He stopped and knelt by the little heap.<br>Seishirou stopped next to him, and watched as Subaru's slender hand ran over the lump with a care that belied what he could do. "It's a cat." the vampire whispered, even though they were far enough away from the other two that it wasn't really necessary. "It's been dead for a long time, there aren't any footprints in the dust other than ours." There was a quiet sadness to his voice, and he was once again left wondering exactly what he was supposed to do. There wasn't any omnipresent script for these sorts of things, but he rested his own hand on Subaru's head.  
>There was a long moment where nothing happened, except that the dust filaments slowly arced across the air and then settled at last, leaving the marks of their footprints distinctly dulled in their wake.<br>Then he stood up suddenly, Seishirou's hand falling away from downy hair as something feral entered bright green eyes. There was a moment where he knew exactly what it must have been like when the flowers crept up around her, but then Subaru's clenched fist snapped open, and there was the wailing of shattered glass as he whipped around and punched through a window so grimy that he could have mistaken it for the surrounding wall.  
>Tiny glittering pieces rained down on the remains like snowflakes, and there was a harsh breath from the shuddering vampire. Then Subaru sighed again, but it was much more calm, and he turned around to fix dampened eyes on Seishirou. "Sorry, I shouldn't have broken the window." he said softly, the hand that hadn't shattered glass rubbing away what might have been the beginning of tears.<br>Seishirou caught the hand where any streaks of blood had already faded away, and trapped it between his own. Outside the window, there was a gasp of wind, and the smell of a clean world.  
>"Subaru-kun," he began, and received a slightly watery gaze in return. He smiled. "Let's go outside."<br>Subaru allowed himself to be guided free from the room, leaving behind the sad little bundle, and then through the hallway until they reached the door that had been fixed by Kamui's claws.  
>He pushed it open and was greeted by the sheer power of the smell of the earth after a long rain, when everything had been washed clean of all taints and was ready to start anew.<br>Subaru's smile trembled, but held as he saw the clearing sky above, the damned clouds at last separating and fluttering across the deep blue that spread out for the first time since they'd arrived. "It smells nice." he said, slightly obviously, but it was cute, so he forgave it.  
>The ground was still very soaked, but that didn't stop the shorter vampire from taking one squelching step, then another, into the open beyond the porch. The light that streamed from behind the hidden sun brought out some of the life that had seemed to fade, coloring him bright in the morning.<br>He was beautiful, but Seishirou already knew that; had been granted the pleasure of knowing that for a long time.  
>Had been granted the pleasure of being allowed to keep that beauty for himself and him alone.<br>Subaru turned around from where he stood in the clearing, the smile that he'd had before rapidly growing more radiant. "Come out here!" he called, hands stretched forwards to beckon him.  
>He could have stayed behind where he wouldn't have become more reacquainted with the mud than preferred, but there was really no reason that seemed to actually make him <em>want<em> to stay where he was.  
>Subaru caught up his hands as he reached the space where Subaru stood, in strange harmony with the world, black and white in a world of green. There was a short moment where they just stood together, and then Subaru folded their hands together so that there was a small space between them.<br>A soft tickling sensation in the center of his palms, and then Subaru was pulling away his fingers with a mischievous smile, revealing the tiny pile of cherry blossoms that had answered his call, innocent and deadly as the string of a bow.  
>A thin pool of sunlight fell down from the sky and caught the edges of the petals, turning the pink from an already lovely color to something more radiant than the brightest dawn. It spread from his hands as a gentle breeze swept the clouds away, illuminating them both in the bright power of the day.<br>Subaru shone in harmony with the sun, everything that had transpired before being washed away until he glowed in alabaster and ebony, his eyes sparkling brighter than any gemstone could hope to replicate.  
>The cherry blossoms fell to the ground, unheeded and unnoticed by either of them as he wrapped Subaru in his arms, claiming him as his and his alone.<br>The first press of lips together was intoxicating, the second addicting. And the third proved that he had absolutely no desire of ever letting go of this beautiful vampire.  
>Subaru belonged to him, and him alone. For now, forever.<br>The sun cast warmth on the back of his shoulders and prolonged the moment, allowing him to forget that anything else was there. But Subaru pulled away from his mouth, only to rest his head on Seishirou's shoulder. It was an affectionate gesture in a completely different way than kissing, and he found that he actually liked it almost as much.  
>"We should probably wake the other two up soon." Subaru said, in a sort of sleepy way, like he knew that he was supposed to, but wasn't actually in the mood to go do it.<br>But he still had a point, and Seishirou sighed. "We still haven't decided where to go," he reminded the other vampire, and was rewarded with a soft laugh.  
>"Yeah, they sort of fell asleep on us last night." Subaru lingered there as the sun continued to warm them. High above, there was the shrill of a hunting bird.<br>Subaru pulled away at last, green eyes vaguely dazed, but there was nothing stunned about the way that he tangled their fingers together, pulling Seishirou along after him with a playful grin.  
>Seishirou followed him back into the house, and the sun faded back behind the clouds as they left it alone. The cherry blossoms lay limply on the earth, but there was some sort of promise behind them.<br>It seemed like nothing much had changed since they'd left, Kamui was still curled up against Fuuma's chest and was looking much more innocent and childish than when awake.  
>But that did not last for much longer, as they watched from the doorway, something, whether dream or instinct or Fuuma's muttering, pulled the third vampire from sleep with violet eyes shot wide.<br>There was the edge of a blush that tainted Kamui's cheeks as he drew himself away from the comforters with much more energy than his previous state would have suggested.  
>Subaru's smile was somewhere between innocent and devious as he addressed his brother for the first time that day. "Ah, you're finally awake. I was wondering when you would be getting up."<br>Kamui's expression was one of 'you-did-not-just-see-that' and it was really quite priceless. Seishirou chuckled amiably as he teasingly brushed a fingertip across Subaru's nose. "You seem to be in a good mood today, Subaru-kun. I wonder why?" He received an amused look through half lidded eyes, and Kamui glared at him.  
>"I've only been awake for two minutes, and you're already starting in on the gloating." The vampire grouched. "Can't you wait at all?"<br>"Nope." he purred, wrapping an arm around Subaru's waist and resting his chin on top of soft hair.  
>"We should be moving to the next world soon." Subaru said softly, something about his tone making Seishirou think he'd earned himself a blush.<br>Kamui bared his teeth, but the threat promised within was barely worth it. "What world?" His tone left it barely a question. Or quiet.  
>"We haven't decided yet." Seishirou said, ignoring the rudeness in the vampire's tone as he hugged Subaru a little closer.<br>"Oh really?" Kamui retorted, rocking back onto his heels. Fuuma stirred under the comforters as if he were thinking of waking up.  
>"Yes really." Seishirou sniped back, momentarily glaring at the aggravation who had a smirk. "Care to offer up any intelligent suggestions?"<br>Subaru twisted around his head to look at Seishirou briefly, and there was a warning held in those eyes.  
>Kamui apparently missed the memo on being calm. "Can it please be somewhere modern? But not Piffle, that's too modern. And I don't want to go to Recort, not after last time. And not Resinga or Malkav, the wildlife there is annoying. And I honestly do not want to go to a place that is raining. I'm very tired of the rain." He finished his stream of complaining, his brow pulled tight in frustration. "And I don't want to go to Tokyo ever again."<br>"Yeah, sure." Seishirou waved him off, feeling rather annoyed himself after that _large_ amount of help. He brushed his nose against Subaru's hair and tried to remain helpful enough that the whole thing wouldn't fall through. "Subaru-kun, do you have any suggestions?"  
>Subaru opened his mouth, but Kamui interrupted. "Were you even listening to me?"<br>"Of course I was." he purred back. "You were complaining about the worlds that you didn't want us to land in. That was _very_ helpful."  
>Kamui growled, loud enough that Fuuma actually twitched, and stood up. "Where do you suggest that we land, then? I'm not hearing you put in any suggestions."<br>Seishirou was about to retort with any number of places that he was sure would annoy the other vampire further, but he was cut off by Fuuma sitting up, one hand to his head as he brushed away sleep like misplaced hair.  
>Subaru broke away from his embrace to walk over and kneel by Fuuma, handing him the discarded pair of glasses from last night. He felt slightly betrayed by the action, but it didn't take him very long to figure out the answer why Subaru might not want to stay in between him and Kamui.<br>"We could always go to Hanshin, or Shura, or Edonis. Would those suit your tastes better?" Seishirou hissed, aggravation pulling his voice taut. "Or is the answer really that you just don't want to go anywhere where you don't have an advantage?"  
>Kamui stomped forwards, all pretenses of calm completely erased, and his eyes slitting gold. "If you even <em>thought <em>for a second, then you'd probably have an _actual_ good answer." he bit out, his fangs flashing. He crossed his arms and stared down at the bristling vampire. "Well I'm halfway tempted to just not pick a world and let you actually do something useful besides complain."  
>Kamui hissed angrily and there was the sinuous sound of his claws extending. "Have you done anything useful either? It seems to me like the people doing all the work are Subaru and Fuuma!"<br>Seishirou opened his mouth to say something even more vitriolic, but he was prevented from talking by Fuuma standing up, with Subaru standing right beside him, looking very distressed.  
>Fuuma's smile was calm, the glint in his eyes was not. "Why don't we go to your home world Subaru-san?" he asked the vampire, the way he said it sounding almost scripted. "There's no reason why it wouldn't work with either of their desires."<br>Subaru's smile was thankful as he looked up at the one human out of them. "Yes, Kamui would be in a place where he felt safe, and Seishirou-san would be with other vampires. And I would like to go home."  
>Kamui gaped at the two of them, and Seishirou was tempted to do the same.<br>"Well...that could work..." Kamui began, obviously thinking out loud. "But...don't you think it may not be the best of places we could go?" he asked Subaru, his voice rising up higher on the end than he probably meant it to.  
>Subaru's smile was just barely dangerous, like the flowers that answered his call so readily. "I think that there are probably hundreds of worlds where we could go, but that would require you two to agree on something."<br>The 'for once' wasn't said, but it was certainly implied. Seishirou shrugged, and sighed inwardly, letting the annoyed energy fall away until he could forget it. "It sounds like a good idea." he acquiesced to their plan. "I'm all for it."  
>Kamui stared at him suspiciously, but nodded sharply. "I don't see any reason why not."<br>The tension in the other two drained away slowly, and Subaru stepped forwards to stand at his side again. "Then I don't see any reason why we should delay any more." Fuuma said with a calmer smile. "Kamui, you may want to collect your clothes, or at least your coat."  
>He received a stare from Kamui that was obviously asking if he was stupid, but the vampire stalked over and swept up his clothes into his arms. Subaru leaned on the wall next to him. "Sorry, Seishirou-san." he said. "But I don't like it when you two argue."<br>He could have turned some of the annoyance and betrayal that he'd felt onto him, but he didn't want to. So instead he just reached out and ruffled his hair. "Just speak up." he said with a smile. "I'll stop if you say something."  
>Subaru's smile was small, but heartfelt.<br>Fuuma finished fixing the blankets on his mattress, and stood up, looking much more awake than before. "Are we ready to go?" he asked all of them, but kept his eyes on Kamui.  
>Seishirou offered his hand to Subaru, who slid his own in with his usual elegance. "Yes, we are."<br>They all walked outside after that, Fuuma making sure to properly close the ruins of the door behind him, and then stood in a circle, Subaru and Kamui standing opposite of each other.  
>There was a gentle hum that began beneath his feet as Subaru and Kamui began to chant something in rhyming intonation, the words shivering the whole world beneath them.<br>Although he couldn't see it, Seishirou could feel the door between worlds form, an rim of light sliding around the edges.  
>Subaru smiled at him as the gateway between worlds opened, slowly and methodical, yet with a rush of motion that out-sped even light. His hand was warm, surprisingly warm, and their fingers ended up laced together as the world began to dissolve beneath their feet.<br>He accepted and called into himself that power; that momentum that made the impossible very, very likely.  
>The sky dropped towards them and the familiar sensation of being utterly displaced and cradled swooped up and caught the four of them as one door closed, and another opened.<p>

The house remained as it had for a long time; appearing undisturbed and peaceful. The fire in the hearth was long dead, mice stalked the halls in search of food that they didn't have to conceal from predators. Two mattresses lay abandoned by the fireplace, one with a neatly made stack of blankets, the other covered in a mess of color that somehow looked just as comfortable as the first one. The house returned to a state of absolute serenity; waiting for those who loved it to come back.  
>The tree rustled viridian leaves, and remembered.<p>

-A/N-

This chapter doubled our word count. I've never written a story this long before! Then again, without phoenix, it wouldn't be nearly as good. Actually, it would probably suck. XD We hope you like it! Please leave a review, we thrive on them, and chapter five will be here soon! And Sorry it took so LONG to put this out here it's just so… you know… long. :hides:  
>Oh, and chapter five is when it gets really good. When the long awaited gore commences. XD Thanks for reading, and stay tuned! Made by Fields Of Paper, edited by the lovely Phoenix To Flame.<p> 


	5. Home Wards

Chapter 5; Home Wards

As always, walking through the gateway between worlds felt like the act of falling, seeming to last both an instant and an eternity.  
>But the darkness faded away as always, and then a different world spread out under their feet, colors entering the world in a violent blaze of glory.<br>The air seemed to sing with all the voices of the birds and sunlight, the scent of it almost impossibly clean, and he couldn't help but smile brightly as his home unfolded in front of them all.  
>Subaru caught his footing easily on the tiles of the roof as the whole of the world began again with their arrival, looking out over the blue-green hills with a wonder he'd forgotten they'd held for him.<br>He heard Kamui's sharp intake of breath, which mirrored awe and joy at finally coming home, and Fuuma's soft sound of disbelief. Seishirou alone remained silent, but from what he could see of his fledgling, he was just as amazed.  
>Despite knowing that they decided to come here, and that the way between worlds connected them, Subaru could hardly believe that it <em>was <em>true, that he was at last home again with all three of them at his side. His smile grew bright as he looked up, eyes catching on vast hills and White Mountain tops that he knew and remembered as his horizon, with the sky that slid from cyan to azure in the early morning, stretching far overhead without a single cloud to mar the expanse of radiant blue.  
>He closed his eyes, and listened to the breeze flying past his ears, creating the echoing hollow sound that he missed so very, <em>very<em> much, and he sighed in content as he listened to the eternal song of the wind.  
>A gentle hand touched his shoulder, and he opened his eyes to see Seishirou looking out at the eastern sky as well, at the first tendrils of sunrise that crept over the edge in a tide of vibrant color, like the ornate fans of a painter's pallet. The hills covered and shielded by evergreen tress stood sleek and tall, strong colors fully grown and beautiful in the morning air, each tree tinted slightly differently as the dawn ran gentle fingers over them all.<br>It was as if he stood at the top of the world, and he could see its faint curving into the horizon, the majestic peaks shrinking a little away from their true heights, creating a slightly rounded vanishing point. Yet even this wasn't the highest he could go to see beyond the confines of the valley. If at the very top of Arquillian castle, balanced precariously on the ornate tips of the roof, it felt like he could reach out and touch the stars in all their glittering glory.  
>He inhaled the deep scent of the world, <em>his<em> world, tasting all of the bitter and the sweet feelings that still lurked, and the myriad thousands of futures that could come to play. Yet he was at peace. More peace than he had been for a long time.  
><em>'Mother's always said that you don't understand what you have until it's gone.<em>' he mused, with a small smile for the memory of how she'd explained it, in her perpetual motion that never failed to sweep him and Kamui up in the tides left in her wake. _'She's right again, as always.'  
><em>There was the scuffle of shoes against stone, and he felt familiarly strong arms slide about his waist, enveloping him in protective, possessive warmth, ready to catch him at the slightest chance of falling. He smiled, and leaned back into Seishirou's welcome touch, blinking in surprise as a sudden first tear sprang into being, running down his face.  
>He was crying, but not with sadness. The only thing that filled his heart was joy, and pure happiness.<br>Seishirou lazily rested his chin on Subaru's shoulder, looking out over the same stretch of earth, and the vampire could hear the smile in the purr of his voice. "It is beautiful, just like you said."  
>Subaru turned his face so that he caught the next press of Seishirou's lips on his own with a smile. "You doubted it?" he asked with quiet amusement.<br>Arms tightened about him for a moment, and there was a glow in the single amber eye left. "Never."  
>There was a whisper behind him, Fuuma's awestruck question being met by a surprising lack of vitriol by his twin as Subaru turned his gaze back to the dawn. He could almost hear the sunrise singing as the first tides of light rushed completely over the world, lighting up all the green of the trees to a new brilliance, and he closed his eyes to listen for a lilting melody on a voice that he knew would never truly come to him.<br>For a transparent moment, he could almost hear it...like all the voices of the world tumbled and blended together into a singular blurry strand of music, echoing over the whole of the earth with a bell-like chiming, always trilling like the thousands of bird calls in colors that lurked under his eyelids and in the flowers falling free of his fingers at the slightest command, ceasing only when the sun had sunk far beyond the horizon.  
>Was this what Kamui really heard? The sunrise, singing? An eternal melody too heavenly for any to imagine?<br>For a split second, he envied his brother and his amazing gift, but it left him just as quickly. He didn't want that power, not truly. He would much rather have just small glimpses and cherish each moment, instead of hearing it in every bright hour of the day. Even so, Kamui was lucky, incredibly, indescribably lucky.  
>Subaru's smile grew even wider as Seishirou made a soft sound of content, leaning on him just a little more than he had been before, careful not to topple them over the edge of the castle's roof. The few moments he had been on his world couldn't have been more perfect. No, not at all. It was like a dream, and it gladdened him to know that it wasn't an illusion born of desire.<br>The sunrise swept up the east into a riot of colors, the tiniest shreds of clouds on the horizon a veritable fountain of fuchsias and mandarins, gold's and scarlet's, lighting the distant mountain tops into a halo of fire as well. And the rest of the world glowed clean and bright, looking always like it had been freshly cleaned and renewed.

Beautiful.

Subaru was pulled from his reverie as a shrill scream exploded from someone behind him, and he whipped around to face the new arrival, yanking out of Seishirou's startled grasp with an ease that would have surprised him if he weren't already on the alert.  
>The green eyes that met his were identical to his own, set in the same face, and wearing a looking of surprise and cautious joy mirroring his own, and his heart flipped over. He heard Kamui gasping next to him, caught up by the same emotions, as the other vampire climbed out of the window that she was peering out of, leaping onto the roof with her usual efficiently, and he let out an unsteady rush of breath.<br>"Mother..." he whispered as she stopped in front of him, and for a frozen moment, they all stood there, mother and sons, looking at one another. And she was just as beautiful as he remember; her face was painted gold by the morning sun, the deep green of her eyes glittering with pure and unadulterated joy, the short black strands of her hair waving gently in the freeing breeze.  
>Then she was broken from whatever spell came over her, and rushed to them to wrap them up in her arms tightly, pressing her lips to his cheeks and forehead, alternating between him and Kamui as she clung to them with all of her strength. He didn't object though, but instead hugged his mother just as tightly, burying his face into her shoulder, the shelter that she had always given them without condition or resentment, an endless fountain of love. Kamui mirrored him, and he could have sworn that he heard his brother sniffling softly. Their mother was saying something, the words tumbling free of her mouth in a rush, but he was in too much of a daze to hear her, enveloped in the overwhelming sensation that everything was all right now.<p>

"My boys...you're back.." she whispered in a joy so powerful, it robbed him of speech, as she stepped back from them, taking a good long look at the both of them, with her vibrant smile making everything brighter, and he smiled back at her, something within him balancing out to the way it should be.  
>She made a soft sound of interest as her arms loosened enough for them to turn about should they wish, and Subaru saw her lift her head away from theirs to look at the two startled men on the roof. "You brought people with you." she said, and a person with less experience of knowing her quirks would have thought that she'd been reduced to stating the obvious.<br>But he knew what was coming next, and almost cringed as he saw Seishirou watching her intently, obviously trying to figure out why she could have been Subaru's twin in looks if it weren't for the evil grin creeping up her lips and into her eyes. "You've started collecting boyfriends?" she asked them both, and Kamui jumped, his head whipping up to glare at her with violet eyes.  
>Subaru was unable to avoid cringing under her knowing gaze. "Mother, we're not <em>collecting<em> anyone." he protested as she snickered under her breath. "And you've scared them."  
>She cast a glance over to Seishirou, whose eye was narrowed as he watched her, and Fuuma who was completely open to her all-seeing gaze. "No more than you would have." she told him teasingly, resting her chin on his shoulder as he turned around.<br>Although his face showed none of it, Subaru could see that Seishirou was really just as surprised as his brother, and definitely on guard as well. He smiled back at his fledgling, the action hopefully disarming, yet he knew that an explanation would be well warranted at this point in time.  
>"Seishirou-san, this is my…" he stopped, and took Kamui's hand in his own, and held it for the penultimate moment; he was rewarded with a soft grip back. "Our mother." he finished, "Hokuto Sumeragi." He looked at her for a moment. "Mother, these are Seishirou and Fuuma Sakurazuka."<br>She flapped a hand at both of them in her usual deceptively carefree manner, her smile bright. "Nice to meet you. Don't worry, I'm not going to bite you, Fuuma." she narrowed on him with a smirk, her fangs flashing. "I don't bite people who don't deserve it."  
>There was a moment of silence, the only sound that passed in continual repetition the rhythms of the zephyr and Fuuma's breath, slightly faster than it should have been, and Seishirou appeared to be deep in thought. Then he relaxed, allowing the darker intents to slink away on the breeze and the visible tension leaving his frame. "I notice that you didn't tell me that I was safe." he retorted, and Subaru recognized the beginnings of a deep set amusement for toying with people's heads entering his eyes.<br>He was undoubtedly going to get more than he bargained for, if he wanted to go into a war of fancy words and double entendres with his mother. He could practically /feel/ her smirk curling about the air in a stream of playful intensity. "Well I don't know yet, Sei-chick." she laughed lightly, "Have you proved yet that you'll make sure that my Subaru never wants for anything you are capable of giving him?"  
>There was a current to the words that was just <em>barely<em> not playing, something in the very depths of the tone was deadly serious, and he glanced at her in surprise. Seishirou appeared to be doing the same thing, but for a much more innocent reason "...Sei-_chick_?" he repeated, his tone making it an0ything but opaque as to what he thought of his nickname.  
>He opened his mouth, but Kamui got there first. "Don't try to make her change her mind." he warned with equal parts chagrin and amusement. "The patriarch will die before she changes her mind by someone else's influence."<br>Subaru let go of his twin's hand as his mother hugged him, wrapping her arms around his chest and pulling him as close as she could. The intense squeeze of her grip stole his breath away, but he didn't mind. Far from it, and he laughed almost silently, returning the embrace and taking in her scent, something he'd always know until the day he died.  
>She let go of him to turn her attention to Kamui, and he stepped over to Seishirou in the space of time. The taller man was still trying to figure out his new nickname, brow furrowed as he thought on it. He withdrew from his mind as Subaru came over to him. "No wonder you have such a sarcastic bite when you want to." he said, the edges of a smirk attempting to tug at his mouth. "Interesting..."<br>Subaru couldn't help but smile at Seishirou's lack of attention to the whole situation, and by proxy, his relaxation that would prevent aggressive negotiations from being necessary. "It's not her that causes sarcasm." he said, looking at the tiles of the roof. "Sometimes diplomacy is not as easy as it looks."  
>Seishirou's face was almost openly questioning his comment, but he turned away to look at Kamui making a face at Fuuma, who appeared to had finally found his equilibrium in the whole thing. Hokuto watched them with her cat grin, looking disturbingly like Cerberous before he pounced on Kamui. "Well Fuuma, at any time that Kamui stops being stubborn and admits that you are his sunrise, I'll be happy to have another child with some common sense." she said with a purr to her voice that blatantly stated her pleasure on the subject.<br>Fuuma, to his surprise, blushed, something strangely childlike for him. Kamui on the other hand, opened and then closed his mouth again, but nothing came out. Seishirou snickered behind him.  
>"You should all come inside, instead of standing on the roof all day." Hokuto exclaimed, brushing aside the effects of her previous comment with political ease, stepping daintily over to the edge of the roof that dropped into her window.<br>"Everyone's awake and about, and they'll be happy to know that you're home. Not as happy as I am though!" she added with a wink, sliding down the window in a rush of dark blue skirts and white top. Green eyes danced merrily as she vanished from sight, and there was the clunk of impractical shoes on the stone floors beneath.  
>Subaru smiled, and followed her example, body memory showing exactly how far he was supposed to drop before he could slide in through the window. His mother stood against the back wall, arms crossed, and smiling. "Well done Subaru." she said, and it wasn't entirely clear as to whether she meant his landing, or any other number of things that made much more sense when she said them than he could ever figure out of her.<br>There were slightly startled footsteps above his head, and he leaned out to see Seishirou staring down at him, confusion being rapidly replaced by amusement on his face. "Come on down,"  
>he invited, stepping out of the direct path. "It's much easier than it looks."<br>Seishirou's soft chuckle, followed by a slightly strange sound, and a scraping noise, predated the boots dropping into his vision, followed by the rest of his partner. "It _looks_ like you're suddenly disappearing." he informed Subaru as he slipped through the window with an ease that suggested he'd been doing it his whole life. This didn't change the fact that Subaru had the distinct impression that he'd slipped getting turned around.

Hokuto smirked as Seishirou brushed at the front of his coat like a cat standing back up after slipping on ice. "Not as easy as it looks?" she asked teasingly, and got a single-eyed glare for her trouble.  
>Ill-fitting pants, combined with Kamui's boots, hung over the opening next, his twin dropping in like Seishirou had undoubtedly planned to. Kamui rolled his head about until his neck cracked, and grinned impishly. "Well done Seishirou. Now Fuuma knows how to not turn around to get off the roof."<br>Seishirou frowned at him, and Subaru resisted the temptation to sigh as Kamui's smirk grew larger, having earned exactly what he wanted. Fuuma's feet entered into his vision, and then he dropped in with the rest of them without too much trouble. He took one glance at Kamui and Seishirou back into one of their standoffs, at Subaru, and shrugged his shoulders with a 'what can you do' attitude to the movement. Hokuto watched both exchanges with some level of wisdom that he wasn't sure he wanted to grasp; i.e. it was undoubtedly on a grand scale that would surpass his ability to understand how her mind leaped and worked.  
>"Well <em>some<em> vampires can't even be bothered to act with courtesy in their own home." Seishirou retorted to some hissed taunt on Kamui's part, and both of them were clearly at a state where claws were not long from being part of negotiations. "One would think that with all of the pride you've put in here that you'd at least act like you were happy to be home."  
>Subaru stepped forwards, and matched eyes with Fuuma, who seemed to have caught onto his plan in a heartbeat, as Kamui snarled, "I didn't <em>want<em> to bring someone so ungrateful here. But you came along anyway. Wouldn't you rather be back where you came from?"  
>Seishirou's eye went from annoyed to absolute ice, and as Subaru abruptly stepped in the way, he saw his mother's smile drop away. "I <em>never<em> want to go back there." Seishirou hissed, unable to do more than verbally snipe with Subaru being a physical block. "Never, ever, _ever_."  
>Fuuma moved into Kamui's path, but Subaru doubted that his twin was actually going to attack any more. And as if in confirmation, Kamui turned around and stalked off down the hallway without further comment, Fuuma following like a lost kitten.<br>Hokuto gave him a serious look, but there was nothing accusatory or angry in it. Then she followed, and he didn't protest, recognizing that she saw that they needed space more than anything first.  
>The clicking of her footsteps faded away as she caught up with the other two, some lighter comment echoing in a blur that he couldn't pretend to understand.<br>The only true sound left in the hall was the sound of Seishirou's strangely harsh breaths, resounding about the room. Subaru turned around to look at him, forcing away all the tiniest tinges of annoyance from before. "He doesn't know." he said, trying to start on an ambiguous enough level that he could help Seishirou find the balance he needed again.  
>Seishirou averted his eye, leaving the white one to stare blankly at him, but Subaru refused to flinch. "It's never been a good world, I don't want to go back." the explanation came out dully, and still without eye contact. "Why would I want to be there, with a thousand ghosts and nothing redeeming?"<br>Subaru stepped forwards enough to reach up and gently turn Seishirou's face back to look at him. "You don't have to go there. Everyone's left now. We can stay here, if you want a world."  
>Seishirou said nothing, but just closed his eyes for a second, letting out another long breath. Subaru remained quiet for him, waiting.<br>Then he opened his eyes again, and one of his usual smirks crept up. "They all ran off without us, didn't they?" he asked, tone suggesting that he was not at all offended by this.  
>"It shouldn't be too hard to-" the rest of his sentence was lost to Seishirou's mouth as he was promptly spun about and pressed to the closer wall, Seishirou's hands pinning his up above their heads. He was trapped on all sides from escaping, and he was quite happy where he was.<br>Subaru's eyes fell shut, and he submitted to the sensations, the temptation and hunger that he could taste with each movement, the way that he was completely claimed.  
>Seishirou made a soft sound deep in his throat, and something in his head gleefully short-circuited, shivering uncontrollably as Seishirou kissed him harder.<br>It was somewhere around the part where he was pretty sure that Seishirou had managed to detach everything that was on fire from everything else with his tongue, and he was half a moment away from completely throwing away his vow when the clicking of impractical shoes alerted him of his mother's approach. They had not managed to detach from each other by the time she returned and saw what was going on, and it was highly unlikely that she hadn't already figured out what caused their delay.  
>"Sorry to bother you, but you can suck faces later." she said with all of her usual energy, arms crossed and a grin playing at her lips. "Subaru, Kotori wants to make sure that all of your limbs are still attached. Sei-chick, you should catch up with the rest of the group before someone less savory decides to cause trouble."<br>He couldn't decide whether to dissolve, or simply crumble with embarrassment, but his face _burned_, and Seishirou was completely unfazed by being interrupted; only smirking back at her as Subaru cringed. Hokuto waved at them, and then strode back off, seemingly confident that they would follow.  
>His hands were released from their captive state, and he buried his face in Seishirou's chest as his partner chuckled lowly. "Looks like our free time is over." he said with a large dose of amusement.<br>Subaru refused to leave his hiding space. Light fingertips traced over the top of his head. "Subaru-kun..." Seishirou's voice was gentle, and full of affection. "Come on."  
>He reluctantly withdrew from his shelter, and kept his face averted, knowing that his blush was still the highlight of his face by how it burned.<br>Those gentle fingers slid down his cheek, leaving it tingling, and down his arms to brush almost tentatively at his hand.  
>He opened up his hand without a thought as to otherwise, and Seishirou locked their fingers together, something that was as powerful as a kiss, yet so much more innocent. He smiled up at his partner, and was met with one of matching feelings.<br>And slowly, they walked down the hall to catch up with the others.

The great hall stretched up until it seemed to aspire towards heavendom, the sharp peaks of the ceiling almost lost in the great spreading, and Fuuma could not help but gape openly at the power confined to a design that still ached to desire eternity.  
>In sharp relief to blackened stone of the walls, the stone creatures that were frozen into rigor mortise seemed ready to regain life and leap out at all who stalked their hallways unkindly, frightening and yet beautiful, like his mother in her dance of silk and steel. Blue stones with ancient words- were they wards or curses?- littered the empty spaces between demons and cats, a trail of pentacles and pentagrams that ran down the walls ceaselessly in a tide of azure glitter.<br>As if to add yet another accent to the whole of it all, glittering iron and bronze suits of full armor lined the corridors, the slick shine of their once proud majesty offering a strange counterpoint to the stones of the world.  
>And a massive chandelier dropped from the lofty ceiling; glowing with tongues of magic fluttering up and down the golden spidren limbs, tinting the fire a thousand hues that seemed to sing in strange condense with the rest of the room.<br>Fuuma grinned at the immense amount of time and work that the entire space frankly rang with, and could barely take his eyes off of all the intricate details. Kamui walked by his side, a smile without sardonic or sarcastic intent behind it slowly spreading over his face as he looked at each beast entombed in the walls. He walked as though he was a part of the building, born to stalk the floors forever, and something stood him up taller than before. Even though he had always claimed his place in any world he'd been in, this was the first one where he looked like he was a _part_ of it.  
>The clicking of Hokuto's shoes vanishing on the walkway as she went off to find their wayward brothers offered a bizarrely hollow sound to the whole thing, and he was tempted to watch her departure to see if anything of her was like Kamui, but he refrained on the verdict of it would bring up some <em>really<em> awkward questions from the other person with him.  
>Kamui stopped as if on some unspoken cue, and turned to look at the slitting cut of one of the few windows to mar the patterns of the wall, staring out onto the lush world with an unreadable expression on his face. "Do you like it here?" he asked, and it took Fuuma a second to realize that it was he who was being addressed.<br>"It's beautiful." he said, walking closer to Kamui. It got him a strange smile back, and then he turned violet eyes back to the world.  
>"I've never seen it as beautiful before." Kamui began with the tone of the mesmerized, or the hypnotized. "I guess it's hard to see a world that's constantly loud, constantly talking as beautiful. But to someone who can hear the silence of it all, it must be beautiful."<br>Fuuma stared at him for a minute. "Why is it so loud?" he asked at last, unable to understand exactly where Kamui was coming from.  
>He got another strange grin, tight-lipped and not reaching his eyes. "Most worlds, they don't know that I can hear them, and the little things that do are too amazed to constantly talk. But <em>this<em> world..." he trailed off, and looked onto the slice of clear blue sky. "This world not only knows, but it has always known. And since we've arrived, it's been a tirade of song in my ears. It's a little annoying." he concluded with one of his more normal smirks taking place on his face.  
>He glanced over at Fuuma, and his smirk got a little amused. "To put it in perspective to you, it's rather like going to Piffle, and having all of the people, and the vehicles, and the billboards, and just about anything else that can make noise welcoming you home at one."<br>Fuuma winced in sympathy. "I can see where it would get annoying really fast." he offered, and Kamui let out a sound that could have been a laugh, and turned to look down the hallway. "Mother's coming back." he said, some of the tension draining away.  
>Fuuma turned as the sound that must have already caught Kamui's attention grew strong enough for his ears, and Hokuto flounced around the bend in a blur of dark blue and white, a rather smug grin on her face- and <em>there<em> was something that the two of them had in common; their grins whenever something amused them, and he was vaguely concerned as to whether or not he should be scared, but no, it clearly had nothing to do with them, as she caught up with them. "Your brothers should be coming now. _Or else._" and the tone was violently amused as only a good mother could be, and Fuuma for a moment wished that Setsuka could be like her.  
>Kamui stepped away from the window entirely to stand next to her again. "Were they kissing when you found them?" he asked with a faintly disgusted tone to his voice.<br>Hokuto's grin grew wider. "Sei-chick had Subaru pinned to the wall." she said with obvious pride, and Fuuma resisted the temptation to snort at the hindsight predictability of it all. Although he certainly hadn't had all the information when he was younger, it often seemed like that was Seishirou's solution to any of his problems, disappear for several hours and return looking rather like a cat that had got at the cream.  
>Kamui turned around and made exaggerated retching sounds out the window, only to get smacked on his shoulder by his mother, making an exaggerated face of her own as she silently chided him for his overreaction.<br>At a slower pace than Hokuto, and with more serenity behind it, Seishirou and Subaru rounded the bend, obviously lost in their own little world, soft smiles directed only at each other, hands twined about each other and fingers laced together. Whatever frustration that had taken over Seishirou was long discarded, and the reason why was easy to see.  
>Kamui's scowl was almost as dark as Subaru's smile was bright, and he neatly sidestepped another of Hokuto's smacks. "Done being grouchy now, <em>Sei-chick<em>?"  
>Seishirou barely cast him a glance as they stopped, but to his slight surprise, Subaru sent Kamui a rather unhappy look, and whatever passed between them was enough to quiet Kamui for the moment.<br>There was a vaguely awkward silence that stretched out for what was longer than it probably should have been, before Hokuto grinned at all of them, and without further adieu, began to lead them off down the halls again, almost seeming to flutter from footstep to footstep, as if she was only a moment away from taking flight and never coming back.  
>There was a soft whisper from his brother, and an even softer one in return from Subaru as they returned to their walking, the space between the rest of them no barrier. Kamui pulled himself away from where he seemed to want to take root, his earlier good mood almost gone again. Fuuma followed last, watching all of them for what they were, disjointed heavenly bodies confined to humanity, or more accurately, vampirism.<br>After walking for what seemed to be unfathomably long minutes, the walls unbroken by anything other than the occasional door or window, they made it to a large room, much grander than the others he had caught glimpses of, and the patterns of blue stone and frozen heads broke entirely for the span of the doorway.  
>A large mahogany dining table stretched through the center, able to easily fit at least a hundred people, if not more, and it gave the room a sense of balance. At this present time, the head of it remained empty, and in fact, it was clear that it hadn't yet been used that day.<p>

There were two people, probably vampires as well, at the end of the table though, one of them smaller and curled up in her chair in such a way that she could easily spring into movement, the other a man sitting demurely, holding a quiet conversation with the younger looking one. He stopped talking though, glancing up as Hokuto strode down to them, and then smiling at her in much the same way that Subaru smiled at Seishirou. Then he looked over at them, and even from where they stood, he could see the utter lack of surprise on his face.  
>The one as energetic as Hokuto in the room abruptly unfolded from her position, soft pink sleeves flying out as she sprang up to walk around to her, coppery bright hair bouncing with her movement. Her voice carried the same unyielding power as both of the vampire twins, and it also carried as she got around to the woman, face set with confusion; "Mother, where did you run off to? I was wondering where you-" she stopped abruptly as Hokuto pointed to the doorway, and looked at the four of them. Then confusion changed to delight, and she had leaped the table with surprising ease, running towards the most advanced of their party with her brightest grin.<br>"_KAMUI_!" she cried as she slammed into him, hugging him tightly.  
>Kamui <em>laughed<em> and hugged her back just as tightly, looking much more cheerful than he'd been a moment ago. "I'm home." he said, and it seemed like a more powerful sentence than the words themselves stated.  
>She mumbled something else into his shirt, and he made a sound of agreement. After a long moment of them swaying together, she let him go, looking up into the older vampire's face with an impossibly bright smile.<br>"I've missed you too, Sakura-chan."  
>Fuuma resisted any and all twinges of jealousy that sprang up at how open his smile was, and then he caught sight of her eyes. Green as jade and just as unfathomable, a deep color that exactly matched Subaru and Hokuto's. And as he looked, he saw that the shape of her face, her smile, they matched Subaru's as well.<br>As the girl in question hugged Subaru, although not for quite a long time as she did Kamui, he stepped over to the smiling vampire. "Who is she?" he asked, and _hoped_ to the highest heavens that none of his lingering traits of jealousy leaked through.  
>Kamui turned that smile onto him, and he almost shivered at the intensity of it. "Sakura-chan is my sister. My little sister."<br>The girl stepped back from Subaru with her smile still present, and noticed the rather disbelieving stare that Seishirou was giving her. "Oh hello, I'm Sakura Sumeragi, sister of Kamui and Subaru. Nice to meet you."  
>Fuuma definitely<em> did not<em> snort at the disbelieving glance being turned on to Subaru, who seemed perplexed himself, and there was going to be an interesting conversation between the two of them later. "I'm Fuuma Sakurazuka." he introduced himself back, and then got one of her thousand-fold bright smiles directed straight at him as Hokuto came back over to their group.  
>"...Seishirou Sakurazuka." was his brother's rather lackluster addition to the whole conversation, and there's still a look of confusion that seemed like it was going to hang around for quite some time.<br>Sakura turned around and hugged her mother as she caught up, and got her hair gently stroked as Hokuto smiled at all of them, and for a moment, he caught signs of how old she really was, some level of having seen so much more than them in different ways showing only through her eyes.  
>He felt his hand be suddenly grasped, and looked to see Sakura holding on with her much smaller hand, and a delighted grin on her face. "Come sit down!" she invited, tugging on Kamui as well, and Fuuma almost stumbled as she pulled with a rather surprising amount of strength for such a small frame. Kamui appeared to have been expecting it, he wasn't caught off balance <em>at all <em>as they were escorted over to the other vampire sitting at the end of the table.  
>The male who had been left behind stood up with a smile, and offered a small bow to Kamui as they arrived at Sakura's chosen destination. "It is good to see you home again, Kamui-san." he said with a lilting tone, odd to his ears.<br>Kamui's scowl held no venom behind it. "You don't need to use the honorific, Kakyou." he said in return, arms crossed.  
>He got an almost enigmatic smile, as if it were a long standing exchange, and then 'Kakyou' was focusing light golden eyes on him, and Fuuma was almost surprised by the amount of recognition in it. "Welcome to Magval, Fuuma Sakurazuka-san." he greeted with the same level of politeness as he'd addressed Kamui with. "I am Kakyou Yumemi, consort to the current leader of the Magami family."<br>His gaze looked out past them, and as he turned around, Fuuma noted that it landed on Hokuto, towing the other two of their group to the table, Seishirou hanging back just enough to be obstinately himself. "Hokuto-san?" he asked the man for confirmation, and received the smallest of nods.  
>Hokuto herself smiled widely, circling around the table easily to wrap her arms around his neck, trapping pale golden locks under her eager grasp. "My Kyou-chan is very helpful to me."<br>Fuuma couldn't resist the urge to smile at the rather love-struck look that Kakyou turned up at the woman, and noted that neither Subaru nor Kamui had any expression denoting displeasure with the whole thing; rather Subaru had a fond smile of his own at them, and Kamui had a startling lack of scowl on his face.  
>Seishirou still looked completely baffled through.<br>"Nice to meet you, Kakyou-san." he replied at last to the other man's greeting, giving a small bow. No sense in starting off on the wrong foot with future relations.  
>Hokuto removed one of her arms from around her consort's neck, and flapped the attached hand at the row of chairs in front of them. "Don't be wet blankets, you all. Sit down!"<br>Sakura and Kamui flopped into the chairs in front of them with startling speed, and it abruptly became very clear (not that it wasn't _already_) who the head of the family had always been. Subaru slid into his chair with more grace than his younger siblings, but there was still an amused submissiveness to the action. Fuuma decided not to press his luck with not obeying, and sat in the chair between the green-eyed siblings.  
>Seishirou was left standing up by himself, for a moment. Then he made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat and sat down in the other chair next to Subaru with what looked suspiciously similar to a pout.<br>Hokuto released Kakyou the rest of the way, sinking into the seat next to him with feline grace, and then rested her chin on her hands with a grin promising doom and embarrassment for all who fell under her gaze. "Soo..." she purred, eyes glinting, "Just why did you decide to come home now? Not that I'll ever complain," she hastened to add as Kamui opened his mouth, undoubtedly to deliver an offended comment, "But it is really interesting that you have come home after Kamui flew off in such a huff."

Kamui opened his mouth again, and then shut it. Subaru glanced at the four of them, and then answered. "After we managed to mostly settle our differences, we decided to come home because Seishirou-san and Kamui were having trouble thinking of a place where they both wanted to go."  
>Kamui shot a hot glare at Seishirou over the heads of the three in between, and Fuuma resisted the urge to snort in something between amusement and just plain giving up on mediating between those three.<br>"Kamui." Hokuto began, her tone just affected enough to be warning, and Kamui flinched, broke eye contact with Seishirou and cringed in his chair.  
>Seishirou's smirk lasted the entire time it took for her to turn those green eyes onto <em>him<em>, and then vanished like smoke on the wind. He didn't cringe into his chair like Kamui did, but there was a sense of flattening his ears and curling in on himself anyway.  
>Fuuma refused to let his lips twitch in a smile at seeing how fast Hokuto could cowl his brother by way of concern that he might get the look instead.<br>Then she leaned back in her chair, and some of the oppressive weight of her gaze faded away. Gloved fingers were locked behind her head, and she still bore a rather pleased smirk. "So Sei-chick and Kamui-chan still have trouble getting along?"  
>If there was a good word to describe the look on Subaru's face, it would have been <em>completely and utterly defeated<em>. Seishirou cast the tiniest of glowers at the other aforementioned vampire, and then opened his mouth. "Well it's hard to get along with someone who reacts to every reasonable action like I've just disemboweled his puppy and kicked him in the chest a few times for good measure."  
>Hokuto's smirk suggested it couldn't end well, but Kamui missed it entirely in his urge to either make a fool out of himself or win a battle he didn't have enough experience in. "Well it's <em>hard<em> to get along with someone so emotionally repressed that anything that they don't find immediately interesting is discarded as _boring_."  
>Subaru buried his face in his hands as Seishirou let his own sneering smirk take place again, and Fuuma was tempted to take the two of them and smash their heads together for being such idiots. "Are you jealous that I don't find you as interesting as Subaru-kun?"<br>Kamui stood up from his chair with violet eyes sparking and fingers clenched. The effect combined with his unruly hair gave him a look rather like an irate pigeon, although to open his mouth and say it would probably get him killed. "Jealous? _Jealous_?" he sputtered to Seishirou's obvious amusement, "I could never want someone as backwardly fucked up as you!"  
>Hokuto's intervention was, once again, well timed, although Subaru helped on getting Seishirou to settle down enough to stop baiting Kamui all the time, the hissed words that made Seishirou sink into his chair just a <em>tiny<em> bit helping his cause. Hokuto stood on the table suddenly, hands pushing her wayward son back into his chair.  
>As Kamui flopped into it, she gave him a look every bit as heavy as the ones that Subaru could pull out when well and truly fed up with the relative immaturity of those around him. "Remember your manners, Kamui," the words came out in a matriarch's tone, "Would you speak to Subaru or Sakura so callously?"<br>Kamui made a mumbling sound that Fuuma couldn't understand, as deaf as he was compared to all these vampires around him, but whatever it was, Hokuto seemed to be satisfied, and rocked back onto her heels; still on the table. "You've been rather quiet, Fuuma-chan," she turned her smile onto him. "Trying to not get involved in the playground wars?"  
>It was probably only from both of her previous displays of power that neither Seishirou nor Kamui responded to it, but Fuuma couldn't help but grin up at her. "Although the playground wars are fun to watch, they aren't very safe to get involved in."<br>The looks of all three green-eyed vampires around him conveyed the feeling, although Hokuto's grin suggested that she was still highly amused by it all. Really, she was enough like his brother to raise completely and utter hell for the fun of it, but there was a temperance there too, and he couldn't quite place his finger on it yet, but that temperance gave her, her love, her wisdom, and her trait of motherhood that spoke of a hidden power that would place her children above all else.  
>He thought he liked her a lot.<br>Hokuto slipped back off the table to sit next to Kakyou, and returned to just watching all of them.  
>A silence filled the room after that, Hokuto content to only watch and all of them on the other side of the table far too scared to open their mouths and say something foolish, or just biding their time for when another conversation would begin.<br>At last, Hokuto stood up abruptly, pulling her consort up with her without a sign of physical strain on her part. This may have been because he offered her no resistance, standing up with her to show that he stood not more than half a foot above her, and the shapes of her body suggested that she still had farther to grow. It could also have been because she was just stronger than she looked in general. "It's all dark and gloomy in here!" she exclaimed, and all three of her children immediately shifted to standing up, apparently recognizing the next part of whatever she was doing from undoubtedly _long_ experience with her habits and mannerisms. Fuuma played it safe and stood up as well, and Seishirou rose to his full height on Subaru's other side.  
>Hokuto looked at them all for a moment before grinning widely. "Come on, let's go to the greenhouse! You did want to see how your flowers are doing, didn't you Subaru?"<br>Kamui gave Hokuto a rather hard stare, but there was no way that he could call it anything close to one of his incendiary glares. "Why are you talking about it?" he asked her heatedly, and when her questioning gaze turned just a little more intense, he hastened to add "Mother" and "Please" to his sentence.  
>He had never seen Kamui quite so cowed by anyone before, and Hokuto was barely an inch taller than him.<br>"Well if you're worried about your twin's secret getting out," she began, looping her arm around Kamui's and beginning to tow him off presumably in the direction of the aforementioned greenhouse, "everyone in our family already knows, Sei-chick's a vampire-" It was probably only Subaru standing practically on his brother that prevented Seishirou from opening mouth and inserting himself into trouble, "-and since you didn't change him, and this is the first time he's been here, he _definitely_ knows already, and Fuuma-chan's too smart to have not gotten it, or he's lacking in just enough information to make an educated guess.  
>Fuuma smiled at her as she tossed an emerald green look over her shoulder at him. "Thank you, Hokuto-san. I am afraid that I'm a little in the dark as to what you are all talking about."<br>As they stepped in front of him, nearly to the head of the group, he saw Seishirou's fingers curl about Subaru's possessively, confining him to only his physical presence, preventing others from partaking in that which he wanted to keep.  
>Hokuto's amazingly <em>loud<em> laugh rang through the halls hard enough to make Sakura clutch her hands to her ears. "Well I'm sure you'll figure it out before too long. It's not like it's supposed to be a secret. Kamui is just worried.

Kamui's protest was cut off by Sakura asking her mother to not laugh so loudly, provoking another gale to all of their contained discomfort.  
>He noticed that despite all of Kamui's complaints, the vampire wasn't pulling at all away from his mother, instead hovering very close to her and not looking uncomfortable at her touch. As Sakura joined the two of them, being caught up in Hokuto's arm catching with a laugh and bright smile, brighter then the tentative one that the image girl of a different her had given him so many worlds ago, a sinking sensation ran through his body, collating into a heavy pit in his stomach, and although he knew there was no reason for the feeling, seeing Kamui's halting smile aimed towards the two women circling him, it couldn't help but trigger a sensation of jealousy.<br>He breathed out as the three vampires with arms linked together by the woman in the middle began to move, a conversation springing into being between them. He really couldn't begrudge Kamui what happiness he had, nor a family that cared about him unconditionally.  
>Slowly the pit in his stomach unraveled, although the seeds still wavered annoyingly.<br>Seishirou and Subaru, still linked together at the hands, began to move in tandem, each footstep rhythmic. Fuuma fell into step behind them, and Kakyou surprisingly began to walk with him.  
>They had left the dining room entirely, with Hokuto's little collection moving ahead enough that although her laughter echoed back, it wasn't as deafening as before, before Kakyou said anything. "You are quiet." he stated, his voice warmer than the little patches of sun that slid through the patterned windows to land on Fuuma's cheek. "I wouldn't have expected Kamui to pick someone like you to trust."<br>Fuuma blinked at him in surprise, looking through his glasses to see if there were any illusions about the vampire, trying to understand where he had drawn that conclusion from.  
>Kakyou's smile did not fade at all. "He does trust you, why else would he turn his back on you?"<br>The question seemed almost reasonable, and it was that part that made him uncertain. "He turned his back on Seishirou too, and I _know_ he doesn't trust my brother."  
>Long golden hair slid back along Kakyou's neck as he tilted his head back to look at the distant ceiling. Sakura's laughter, less piercing than Hokuto's, rang back to them. "Even if he isn't my son by blood, I still know him well enough to know he trusts you. Despite what must be every instinct screaming not to, he trusts <em>both<em> of you. And I doubt that he'll ever find a way to explain it to you." Eyes lighter than Seishirou's, lighter than Mother's, but just as far-seeing, met his with calm steel. "But I will trust you to understand that inability anyway."  
>Whatever Kakyou could have added to drive the point home wouldn't have been necessary. "Thank you." he began, trying to find the words before they escaped him entirely. "I don't know that I'll be able to go my whole life without hurting him, but I don't want to, and I don't plan to."<br>For a moment, he could see all of the steely side that Kakyou showed him, the edge of the blade concealed beneath silk, and then he understood part of why Hokuto seemed so fond of him.  
>Anyone who could layer a threat beneath an honest discussion and granting of permission was really worth watching in his eyes.<br>The man smiled at him, and some of the weight of his gaze lightened up. "If you remember that even when he does drive you to near insanity, then you're more than worthy of him."  
>And with that lovely parting note, he stepped away to walk next to the paired vampires, who until then, had been ignoring everyone other than each other.<br>Fuuma attempted to find his voice, and failed.  
>Kakyou's last smile aimed specifically towards him showed that he understood anyway.<br>The other three up far in front turned around, slightly awkwardly on Kamui's part, and Hokuto released them both to prance back over to Subaru, grabbing his free hand suddenly and tugging hard enough that Seishirou wasn't able to react in time to go along with. "I'll give him back when I'm done with him." she told him, Fuuma noted the rather stunned hunching of his shoulders, and started to speed up his pace enough to catch up. "Kamui isn't telling me _anything_ about where you two have been, so you'll have to fill in the gap, Subaru!"  
>Subaru shot Seishirou a very apologetic smile as he was towed off, and Seishirou's shoulders changed from stunned to crestfallen. The only reason that he wasn't running off to join them was Hokuto's staring back at him, seeming to stick him in the back of the separating groups.<br>Fuuma had a feeling that it was less from wanting to separate them and more because it was impossible to hold a conversation with Seishirou when he could ignore them in favor of clinging to Subaru.  
>He had a feeling that the name that Kakyou had stated was his last earlier was more than just an ornamental choice, what had that old book said about Yumemi?<br>Kakyou turned his gentle smile onto Seishirou, golden eyes warmer than expected. "The hawk does fly however he wants, does he not?"  
>Seishirou whipped his head around to stare at Kakyou, and Fuuma winced in sympathy for the amount of ouch that had to be contained in there to be unleashed on unsuspecting vampires.<br>Although Kakyou seemed to be entirely unfazed by the whole of the action. "Don't take offense," the man said calmly, "You just rather strike me as a bird of prey who still acts of his own accord despite the calling of the air."  
>"You are a dreamseer, aren't you?" Seishirou hissed back at him, his tone not enough to carry to the vampires up ahead. "What all have you seen?"<br>Kakyou's smile could have been supremely dangerous if it weren't for the fact that it was tempered by the look in his eyes. "Everything. Every choice that has led to this point."  
>Fuuma did not want to be in the middle between those two, he'd probably die from the sheer effect of metaphor alone. There was a sharpness to Seishirou's stride that he had always associated with him being on the prowl, but there was a certain snakelike coiling of Kakyou's words to leave it a battle of predators with no current intent to kill. "Then why let me in if you know <em>everything<em> I've done." Seishirou snarled under his breath.  
>Kakyou's smile was as sad and gentle as Subaru's could be. "Because Tohru trusted you."<br>All of the tension in Seishirou's shoulders drained away suddenly, and Fuuma watched in a state of amazement that he really shouldn't have, because he should know his brother better than anyone.  
>But he'd never heard of Tohru.<br>Kakyou seemed to hear his question before he asked it, and replied accordingly. "Tohru was Subaru-san and Kamui-san's father, and Hokuto-san's first husband."  
>"Oh." he said in return, probably less than intelligently, but Kakyou took it as easily in stride as everything else.<br>Up ahead of them, the quartet of siblings and mother had stopped and were admiring something on the windows. Subaru was crushed into the center; hopelessly trapped by his brother and mother. He turned and gave Seishirou another smile, and Fuuma watched as Seishirou returned it, a very small one that barely curved his lips up.  
>Subaru's smile grew. Next to him, Kamui seemed to wonder why Subaru had stopped paying attention to them, and looked over to see the three of them standing there. Fuuma resisted the urge to shiver at the rather silly smirk that he adopted as he promptly rested his chin on Subaru's shoulder and said something that caused his twin to go a pale shade of pink.<br>Kakyou's soft chuckle pulled them both away from the study of vampiric twins, to Fuuma's mild embarrassment and Seishirou's slightly confused posture.

They stopped in the hallway at that moment, Fuuma moving forwards enough to see his brother's reactions to whatever was going to happen next.  
>"What are you laughing at?" Seishirou asked, his tone probably more defensive then necessary for the situation, but then, that was his brother.<br>The man couldn't entirely conceal his smile behind one hand, and certainly his eyes gave it away even more than his mouth. "You give away far more than you realize."  
>Seishirou snorted, fixing the single eye that remained on Kakyou's face so that the glass one seemed to be doing something. "And what do I give away?"<br>Hokuto turned all three of her children towards the commotion as Kakyou laughed again, the sound very gentle for all of what he was doing. "How about your attention? You certainly aren't listening to me when you're watching my son."  
>Fuuma noted the lack of awkwardness as the term fell easily from his lips, and realized that whatever situation that this family had; it certainly didn't extend to any resentment on the part of the people involve. It was a very nice thing to see, really.<br>"Ohohohoho!" Hokuto's laughter echoed through the hallway with definite pleasure in the fading sound alone. "Tormenting Subaru's Sei-chick, are you Kyou-chan?" She released both of her mortified sons to throw her arms around his neck, holding on affectionately.  
>Kakyou smiled at her. "Not tormenting so much just as teasing. If he is going to be my son-in-law, he might as well know that he's not as illusory as he likes to pretend he is."<br>If looks could kill, the only thing preventing Hokuto and Kakyou's imminent death was the fact that Subaru had practically run over to stand right by him, steadfast support even against teasing parents.  
>He was joined by both Kamui and Sakura. "Dad's having fun." the young vampire girl informed him in a slightly quieter tone than normal conversation. "Usually he doesn't know so much about other people where they don't know about him."<br>Kamui snorted. "Pushing _this_ guy off balance isn't as hard as it looks." Fuuma chuckled despite himself.  
>Subaru's look aimed towards <em>them<em> would have been barely enough to cut, and maybe not even that much.  
>Seishirou took one subtle step back from the smiling duo of good parents. Kakyou in particular looked amused. "I <em>have<em> seen your dreams, and your travels-" he began, before Seishirou interrupted.  
>"You enjoy spying on my dreams?" he exclaimed with possibly reasonable vitriol.<br>Kakyou let out a very undignified snort. "Not at all. For the most part, they are quite boring. And the ones that aren't are rather too explicit for my tastes. The things you've dreamed up about our young prince was quite...well, shall I say, bizarrely intriguing?" he chuckled in accompaniment with Hokuto's burst of laughter.  
>Seishirou opened his mouth to spit back an irate answer, but then shut it again when none seemed to come to mind. He turned around, and rested his head against the wall with the attitude that Fuuma recognized as "I loathe my life and everyone in it except for Subaru."<br>Subaru reached over to him, face turned away from all of them, and yet not concealing the rather brilliant blush on his face. "S-Seishirou-san." he began awkwardly before stopping and swallowing.  
>From Kamui's dark snickers, he had a feeling that his brother's hiding in the wall was almost more to conceal a reaction very much like Subaru's. Which was entirely odd, because he really couldn't recall his brother being <em>shy<em> on the sexual aspect of life, except it had probably never been brought up to him so unexpectedly in front of the _one_ person who'd he actually be displeased to tell the nature of them to.  
>"It's only natural," Kakyou told his wife. "After all, your two had just as much trouble with those kinds of dreams." Kamui glared at the man with as much sullen teenage attitude as he could aim. "Sakurazuka-san is also simply stuck at that point of his life."<br>Hokuto laughed, and Fuuma wondered how Kakyou hadn't already gone deaf from it all. "Well we can't really blame him for such erotic dreams." She was answering Kakyou, but she had obviously meant the words for Seishirou. "He's in love."  
>It was rather like watching a speeding train heading straight for another, Fuuma mused. You didn't want to watch, but you couldn't look away.<br>Kakyou's smile was mischievous in a very dangerous way. "I must say though, the way it was displayed within your mind was rather intriguing, considering that the landscape doesn't really loan itself to those kinds of dreams easily."  
>Seishirou spun around to face them with eyes wide in absolute horror. "You watched/ them?" he exclaimed, his voice rising on the center of the sentence as it hadn't since he'd finished with that stage of puberty. Next to him, it looked like Subaru was contemplating either condemning himself to death by head banging against wall, or just by too much blood to the head.  
>Next to him, Sakura made a confused sound. "Why is he so offended by Dad watching his dreams?"<br>Kamui choked on his laughter and it was left to Fuuma to explain it. "Uh, because it's the _type_ of dreams that he was having. There are some kinds that nobody wants others to see."  
>Sakura nodded sagely and he wondered if she'd really gotten the point as it was, or just as close as her relative age allowed her to.<br>Kakyou chuckled simultaneously with Hokuto's loud laugh, and smiled at him, shaking his head reassuringly. "No, not at all. I was merely walking through your dreamscape when I stumbled upon Subaru-san and you...engaging in matters of the body and soul. I never watched, only caught a glimpse."  
>Seishirou made a sound remarkably like a spitting cat and turned his back on them again. Fuuma figured that both of them were about ready to die of mortification or something along those lines.<br>Hokuto struggled to stop laughing, clamping a hand over her mouth and making odd wheezing sounds until she finally managed to pull herself together. Kamui actually turned to him and rested his forehead against Fuuma's arm, muffling his helping chuckles. On his other side, Sakura was giggling along with the rest of them, although it seemed more at the fact that she'd just watched her father completely defeat his brother in subtle displays of dominance.  
>Apparently taking pity on the two of them, Kakyou stopped with teasing them, and just smiled at their backs. "I have watched your journeys, both of yours." Subaru turned his face around, the hue of red lining it not quite drained back to normal. Seishirou didn't turn back to look, but his posture said that he was still listening for anything that might constitute as teasing. "And I don't think that you would have been happier if the events of your past hadn't happened. The layers of your past allowed you to work together to find a higher happiness than the one from just peace."<br>Seishirou at last did turn back around, but only enough to hover over Subaru like a protective hawk. "Did you dreamsee this too?"  
>Kakyou shook his head, causing strands of soft golden hair to run down his shoulders like raindrops. "To see an alternate timeline is beyond my powers. There is no way to know what would have happened if you'd chosen differently." he said with quiet wisdom. "So the very fact that you have struggled and made it here together, means that you will find a greater joy in simply being together."<br>Subaru's smile seemed to reflect the sun coming out from behind the clouds, and Seishirou let go of some of the tension in his shoulders.  
>Hokuto released Kakyou to bound over to Fuuma, energy not dampened at all from her previous movements. "So, Fuuma-chan, do you want to see the greenhouse before all of the yucky vampires decide to go up there?"<br>Kamui snorted. "Mom, you know that none of them would bother to wake up to go up there before us." That didn't seem to stop him from casting a cursory glance up both ends of the hallways. "Unless they haven't gone to _bed_ yet."

Hokuto shook her head at him. "Kotori would have sent us a bird message if there was someone else up there." She took Sakura's hand, and reached out for Fuuma's with the spare. "Come on! Let's go up!"  
>Fuuma laughed as she suddenly started to pull. "Hokuto-san, what about the rest of them?" he asked as Sakura sped up to not trip on her skirts.<br>She shrugged with careless abandon. "Kamui's already coming, Kyou-chan isn't done tormenting Sei-chick and they'll catch up when they're ready.  
>When he turned back to look at them, he heard Kakyou's soft chuckle, and saw Seishirou looking strangely amused for what sounded like the topic of conversation after that. "I would have locked you in a dream until your mind shattered from the horror. Perhaps not so much a death as the Magami can give, but death all the same."<br>Seishirou laughed, the sound low and throaty. "If you were a Magami, I would have fled for my life by now." and then he knew that despite the previous conversation, that his brother was really quite impressed.  
>Then Hokuto pulled them around the corner of the corridor and they vanished from sight.<br>"It's a beautiful greenhouse." Hokuto told him, releasing her daughter to let Sakura run ahead to the door that they seemed to be heading for. "There's a lot of birds that come and go with us. Kotori- she's the closest to a big sister that Kamui and Subaru have- spends a lot of time there with the birds and the trees." She laughed brightly. "Some idiot vampires who don't live up here seem to assume that she's more a bird than a vampire. Which she _is_, but that's not the point."  
>She hadn't released him yet, but that was strangely okay with him. Fuuma allowed himself to be guided down halls gilded in the sunlight that seemed to be falling rapidly towards the afternoon, up a flight of stairs that seemed to be designed to run up, by the way that Hokuto used only the balls of her feet to elevate her towards each next flight. She also continued to talk without needing to stop and breathe, other than whatever air was used to project her speech. "She's not a Sumeragi, she can't hear all the voices of the things without them, but she can still talk to the birds. And she's got an amazing voice, she outrivals anyone else in this castle right now in terms of soprano sounds."<br>She continued to chatter as they left the stairs, coming out in a much smaller, plainer hallway that nevertheless was so much less oppressive than the previous one, as if she was trying to help him learn all of what he needed to know about her family in the span of time to get to their destination.  
>If this was what a mother was like, then he wished that she could have been his.<br>At last, Sakura ran forwards and opened a door without holding it for them, vanishing in a flurry of pink skirts and energy. Kamui went after her, the door thudding shut behind him. Fuuma caught the dull scent of wet dirt, damp foliage and heady flowers on the little breeze that escaped the room.  
>Hokuto released his hand at last to go and grab the handle of the door, but not pulling it open. "Are you ready to see one of the prides of the Sumeragi?"<br>At his nod, she opened the door.  
>And he couldn't stifle the gasp that came up at the sight.<br>There were little birds soaring through the air on wings of brown and black and much more vibrant hues, darting in and around the trees that crowded against the top of the glass, large green leaves pressing together for all to scrabble against each other to taste the filaments of sunlight that seeped through the room. Gaudy flowers traced out a walkway of shorter grass towards a circle of stones that seemed to serve as a perch for people to sit on and bask in the glory of it all.  
>"I didn't even see this from the roof." he whispered to Hokuto's amused grin.<br>She let out a cackle. "You wouldn't, there's an illusion on the roof so that no one who doesn't know where exactly this room is can see, hear, or feel it." She ushered him into the room before shutting the door with a slam. "It's our pride, we wouldn't leave it in such a state where just anyone could find it."  
>The door seemed to vanish into the viridian haze of the room.<br>Sakura appeared from the plants next to him with a grin. "Fuuma-san, you should come this way." she told him, tugging on his sleeve. "Kotori-chan and Kamui are over here. You don't mind me borrowing him, do you Mom?" she asked, turning the last part of the stream of words to Hokuto, who had her arms crossed and a wholly amused look on her face.  
>"Go ahead and kidnap him, I'm going to wait for your other brother." she told them, fixing her eyes on where the door had to hide in the room.<br>Sakura pulled again and he went with her without complaint, and partially to protect himself from having his arm tugged out of his socket. "Be careful, Fuuma-san." she said as they brushed past a bush that sent up a flurry of sparrows in outraged cries. "There are several plants in here that can poison, and if they're strong enough to work on a vampire, I don't know what they'd do to you."  
>He resisted the urge to swallow and look at the plants nervously. "Why do you have poisonous plants here?" he asked, certain that he would regret the answer.<br>The girl slowed, putting one finger to her lips as she thought. "Well we have dragonsong because it's really powerful, and Mom's good at scaring enough of the others that it's not a bad idea to have it, and we have lady's dance because it's very pretty. And we have butterfly dream because it keeps dragons away."  
>There were any number of smart questions that he could have asked about the natures of the plants, or how on earth Hokuto could be terrifying enough to warrant a plant powerful enough to kill vampires, or if they actually had dragons, but all that came out of his mouth was; "Why do they all have such flowery names?"<br>Sakura laughed as they skirted around a pool with several butterflies perched on the edge with long proboscises descending into the liquid, wings fanning back and forth vaguely in gaudy colors. "I don't know. But there are many nice plants that get stupid names, so I'd rather that they have pretty ones."  
>There was a definite logic to that. But before he could ask any more questions, they were through the forest and into a garden.<br>In it was Kamui, with no less than three birds resting on him at any time, a dark look that he was rapidly coming to recognize as not so much frustration as an obstinate attitude to avoid admitting that he was enjoying himself. And next to him stood a girl with long golden hair falling in a ripply tide down her back, with eyes as golden as Kakyou's and a very gentle smile as two birds with waves of purple and green rushing up and down their backs depending on the subtle changes in the light rested on her hands. The loose white dress she wore that was only minorly covered in bird droppings offered her a faintly angelic quality.  
>The large white wings that were folded behind her back also offered that illusion.<br>The birds on her hands took off as Sakura ran over to hug her, heedless of the stains on her dress. The young woman smiled down at her, and then when she looked up, saw Fuuma.  
>Her smile didn't fade at all. "Welcome to the greenhouse." she said, calmly releasing the other girl from her arms. "I am Kotori."<p>

He smiled and bowed to her. "Fuuma Sakurazuka."  
>Her eyebrows arched up, and she glanced at Kamui, but said nothing of it. Then she let out a soft trilling sound and the violet-green bird descended onto her hand again. Picking her way across the ground, she offered him the cheerfully chirruping bird.<br>Fuuma looked at how it balanced on her hand, walking about without a care. "How do I-?" he began, but then she gently interrupted him.  
>"Press a finger against her legs, she'll walk up." Kotori said with a smile as the bird hopped closer to the edge of her fingers and cocked its head at Fuuma, watching him. "Go on."<br>Hesitantly, he reached out, brushing one finger against the soft pale feathers as he tried to not hurt it. The bird made a chirping sound and fluttered up to his finger, and began to preen.  
>Kotori smiled at him. "Yes, you are good hearted." Another bird, this one a violent yellow with black stripes that sang a merry little tune at her as it alighted on her shoulder. Her wings twitched in acknowledgment. "Violet-green swallows don't choose so easily, or lightly."<br>Strangely, this, more than anything, was a sign that he would be trusted among them. The bird on his fingers began to hop up his arms, wings fluttering with each movement that left tiny claws hooked in the threads of his coat. He smiled at it as it got close enough to rest on the curve of his shoulder, peeping uncertainly at him.  
>Kamui came over to them, trying with no success to shake the drab little sparrows off of him. "Damn things think I'm a god." he told Fuuma with a growl. "Get <em>off<em>." he barked at the birds to no avail.  
>Sakura laughed and took one of the sparrows from him with a trill, that while not quite as birdlike as Kotori's, certainly worked, as it promptly began to sing a bubbling brook of notes that left her giggling. "You are sweet too." she told it as it brushed a wing against the palm of her hands. "Kamui's just good at whining." she confided without lowering her voice at all, to Kamui's pained groan."<br>Fuuma looked at the birds still circling around Kamui, and lifted his hand into the feathery vortex with a rather large amount of apprehension as to the outcome.  
>First a black bird speckled with what could have been tiny stars landed on his hand, and then one of the remaining sparrows to the initiative to land on his head and promptly sit, locking claws into his hair slightly tighter than he would have preferred.<br>Most of the flock of birds returned to sitting on Kotori, up and down her arms, and a few on the top arches of her wings. She laughed and trilled at them, ending in a soft humming sound. Kamui shook his head vigorously until it all struggled to stand up more than usually, and then crossed his arms and aimed a glare up at the two birds that decided that he was still needing ornamentation. When it did nothing, he stared hard at Fuuma. "Not a word." he bit out, and returned to glaring at the birds on his head.  
>The little swallow on his shoulder bounced to right next to his chin, and then settled down, bright eyes blinking in the dappled sunlight raining down on them all. In the distance along the flower path, he could see a shadow of black hair, and Hokuto waved.<br>Fuuma couldn't wave back without dislodging his friends, but he smiled at her nonetheless. She grinned, and then turned as a slit of shadow appeared and the hidden door began to open.  
>He was distracted from the reappearance of whoever had caught up by the sound of laughter, that unlike Kotori's or Sakura's, was mostly just painfully loud.<br>Kamui made a growling sound, and Kotori's face showed massive amounts of sympathy for the bristling vampire. "Sorry, she came in here this morning, she was sleeping a little while ago."  
>The vampire huffed, causing his crown of birds to squeak and flutter wings in alarm. "It's not your fault, Kotori." he told her, eyes darting from side to side of them.<br>Through a hedge on the far of the clearing, a girl with red-brown hair tumbled out, the strangely colored locks falling over her face and tangling up in the shortened grasses. Seeming completely unfazed by this, she bounced straight back up, brushing her hair out of ruby eyes. Then she landed those eyes on Kamui, and pounced.  
>His birds took flight, leaving a few feathers behind and squawking in outrage. Kamui's face said that he very much desired to do this too, and did not return the attempt of an embrace. "Na-ku-ru," he squeezed out from under her tight grip, "Let <em>go<em>."  
>She did so, with another laugh that made Fuuma wince to hear it. "You're back!" she exclaimed, reaching up to start pulling feathers out of his head. "I was so <em>lonely<em> without you."  
>Kamui batted away her hand with a scowl. "You did not, you just ran around bothering anyone else who didn't run away from you."<br>She pouted at him, lower lip sticking out far too far to be effective, and from Kamui's flat look, it obviously wasn't working. So she shook her hair out of her face again, locking her fingers behind her back. "Well how were your travels? How's Subaru-chan? Did he come home too?"  
>"'Subaru-<em>chan'<em> is home, but you aren't going to bother him too." Seishirou said coolly, one hand resting on Subaru's waist with a distinctly possessive air. Behind them, Hokuto was watching the proceedings with what looked like no intention to help, and Kakyou was further in the shadows.  
>The girl scowled at him, eyes sparking in a manner that might have been dangerous if she showed any inclination to do anything other than attempt to look cute. "Well aren't <em>you<em> just a rainy day just waiting to happen?" she said sulkily.  
>Seishirou smirked at her, eye flicking over to Fuuma and his collection of birds. "I quite enjoy rainy days, and I still stand by my earlier statement. You are going to leave Subaru-kun alone."<br>She pouted again, but gave up. "Kamui-chan..." she whined, trying to shrink so he was looking down at her. "You haven't answered my questions."  
>"And I'm not going to." he said in return, turning away from her in a deliberate action to go and take one of Sakura's birds from her in the name of ignoring her.<br>She made an unhappy face, crossing her arms under her chest. Then, when she was turning, whether to leave or go back to hiding in the foliage, she caught sight of Fuuma without Kamui there to be distracting.  
>He took two steps back, and all of his birds left him for Kamui, seemingly knowing that she was very dangerous in a harmless way.<br>"Now who are _you_?" she purred, eyes lighting up with interest. "Did Kamui-chan collect you from somewhere?"  
>Kamui shot her a heated glare, enough that it seemed hot enough to burn him even without being the target of it.<br>"Ooh, you're _handsome_!" she cooed, looking up and down him in a way that suddenly brought Setsuka to very real mind. "Can I keep him?"  
>Kamui came to his rescue unexpectedly, stomping in front of him hard enough to send Kotori's birds flying in agitation. "Buzz off like the gnat you are, Nakuru." he spat, claws sliding out in a deadly threat. "And keep your hands off."<br>She stuck her tongue out at him, and then she suddenly blurred, to stand next to Fuuma, and ran a finger up the lining of his jacket with a dark grin. Instinct took over, and he stepped back suddenly to stand much closer to his brother.  
>Kamui grabbed her arm with a snarl, extended nails biting into her skin until lines of red blood ran down her wrist to drip onto the plants, his eyes flashing gold in a very clear warning. "Don't forget who the higher power of us is, <em>Nakuru<em>." he spat through clenched teeth.  
>She grinned at him, and shook him off. "No need to be so rough, Kamui-chan." she purred, taking two steps back as the marks on her arms faded out. "I know where I'm not wanted."<br>She turned around with a dancer's precision, and then blurred to the door. Another ruby-eyed smirk, and then she left.  
>Fuuma tried to pretend that she hadn't scared him as much as she had.<p>

Subaru stepped in front of him to touch Kamui's shoulder for a moment, before going over to hug Kotori, careful enough to wait for all of her birds to leave before wrapping his arms around her for a moment.  
>Hokuto walked over to him, but didn't reach out to touch. He was very thankful for that. "Sorry about Nakuru." she said with feeling behind the words. "She's only half pureblood, but her shadowstalker blood lets her flashstep faster than we can necessarily catch her."<br>He smiled tightly at her, trying not to shake. "It's alright." he told her, struggling to keep his voice from wavering. "She didn't do anything."  
>Hokuto's eyes said flat out that she didn't believe him, but let the matter drop. "Kamui! Sakura!" she called to her two, and they walked over to hear what she had to say at that moment.<br>Seishirou's voice was low enough that only he and Subaru, who had returned from hugging Kotori to stand by them both, could hear. "She's not Setsuka." he said tersely. "So don't let her be Setsuka."  
>Fuuma nodded a little more shakily than he really wanted to, and Subaru's smile at him just hurt, full of understanding and sadness.<br>Sakura and Kamui appeared next to him, Hokuto's grin pushing them without ever needing to use physical contact. "Let's go." the male of the two said, twitching a finger at Fuuma to indicate that he was supposed to follow.  
>Fuuma followed without complaint, looking back at the rest of the group as they began to move. "Where are we going?"<br>Sakura's voice was less bright than it had been, but still determinedly cheerful. "We're going to the gardens, and they are going to stay up here and talk. About important things."  
>The idea of vampires talking about "important things" sounded rather interesting, but he was sandwiched in between them, and not really able to stop and go back.<br>It was Kamui's quiet comment that made him realize why they were leaving. "If we're outside, then I don't have to worry about killing our plants with the blood of idiots."

If anyone else decided to lay their hands on Fuuma like that, Kamui was going to kill them. Or get Subaru to help, since, not without good reason, they found him more terrifying than Kamui and his 'silly little Sumeragi powers'.  
>The hallways were blissfully silent except for them. Fuuma's slightly harsh breathing had made them stop as they headed down, but already the idiot of a man was trying to pretend he was alright.<br>Sakura looked at him with worry, and then up at Kamui. "Do you want to show him Subaru-nii-chan's gardens?"  
>Fuuma's eyebrows quirked up, and Kamui resisted the temptation to either smirk or make a stupid comment. "We could do that, but it's seven flights down." he reminded her.<br>There was a careless wave of light pink fabric as Sakura flapped her sleeve at him. "Seven flights is _easy_."  
>Kamui <em>almost<em> sighed, but understood where her interpretations of Fuuma's stamina levels were coming from. "Are you up for going down and up seven flights of stairs?" he asked Fuuma, ignoring the way that Sakura nodded her head vigorously at this.  
>Fuuma began to nod, then his eyes caught on something behind him, lurking in the hallway. By the fact that he hadn't heard a thing, there were very few things that it could be. "Kamui?" he asked, his voice slightly higher-pitched with what could easily grow into fear.<br>He turned around, and was faced with the sight of a large golden cat slinking to a stop to stare at them with almost audible amusement.  
>The panther that stood in the hallway in front of them had all the sleekness of a cat who spent much of its life being lazy and well cared, but with the sinuous predatory movement that also said that it was just as dangerous as its wild counterparts.<br>This danger was _slightly_ mitigated by the fact that its first action was to saunter up to Kamui and Sakura and rub up against them with a low rumbling noise that would have been a purr in smaller cats.  
>Sakura promptly hugged it with her usual graceful enthusiasm, the dark green skirts pooling around her as the cat returned her affection by butting its head against her cheek with ears that were happily pricked forwards.<br>Kamui cast a quick glance towards Fuuma, who seemed both amused and nonplussed at this strange action, and decided that the slight to his dignity by kneeling before a cat was better than acting all brave and mighty in front of the animal who knew him better than almost anyone else.  
><em>"~Well met, young Speaker.~"_ Cerberus purred at him from within the clutches of Sakura's embrace. _"~Your sojourn and migration have bequeathed you with countless fragments of wisdom, enlightenment and insight. I trust that your return and salutation have been quite blithe and joyous?~" _  
>Fuuma made a noise of amusement, and Kamui shot him a glare, though he knew that the younger man could not have understood a word there, and that his amusement had to be derived from the sheer amount of words used to completely tie up his brain. "Yes, it has been good to come home." he answered the cat who had his usual damned smirk.<br>The act of mostly closing his eyes pulled the startlingly tawny fur around Cerberus's eyes into a ripple of golden fur. _"~I perceive your paucity at my vogue of articulation, locution and conversation prevails as ever. Perhaps you have lacked a sufficient quantity of well learned feledae to grant you a greater comprehending of supreme free morpheme.~"  
><em>Kamui resisted the urge that rose up to smack his head against the wall a few dozen times, and only let out a groan of frustration. "I thought the _rain_ was hard to understand." he told the cat who was obviously not offended at his words. "But you're much, /much/ worse."  
>There was a definite rumble of amusement from the cat, who had not bothered to dislodge his sister from around his neck. Sakura's face twisted into a pout. "Kamui!" she reprimanded as she stood up with all of her young indignity. "Kero-chan isn't that bad! I can understand him just fine."<br>Fuuma's eyes flashed from her, to Kamui, to the cat. "Is that his name?" he asked the two of them.  
>The panther in question took two steps forwards to coil about Kamui's legs and threaten to trip him. <em>"~I request that you utilize your dexterity of verbs and nouns to instruct your honored companion in the truths of my ineffable name and alert him to the wisdom that it is not your sister's misnomer that conforms up to the decorum of my title. I am Cerberus, not 'Kero-chan'.~" <em>  
>There was just the hint of danger lurking in golden eyes, and Kamui, with the past knowledge of experience when not obeying cat orders, looked up at Fuuma with a rather defeated feeling weighing on his shoulders. "After all the really fancy talk, he says that his name is Cerberus, and not Kero-chan, because that's Sakura's nickname for him."<br>Fuuma blinked at him once, then twice, before finally looking down at the pleased cat standing between his legs, and then executing a bow that was just low enough to be respectful without being condescending or insincere. "It's nice to meet you, Cerberus." he said, looking over the rims of his glasses to meet the eyes of the cat who just seemed _oh so smug _at his position.  
>The panther dipped his head in a form of greeting, then looked up at Kamui with a cat smirk. <em>"~Your partner appears well trained in the forms of acknowledgment of higher beings. You must have tamed him well in the arts of many things.~"<br>_The edge of that smirk left no denial of what he meant, and Kamui cursed the damned blush that rose to his face as he stepped out from over the cat. "That has _nothing_ to do with how he greets someone; and you're completely wrong anyway!"

Cerberus sat on the ground with his tail curling about his paws. _"~I can scent the perfumes of olfactory sensuality that both of you exclude at a stunning amount. Renunciation and repudiation of the authenticity of your passion, infatuation and nymphomania will get you exactly nowhere~"_

Kamui could feel the blush on his face growing more violent as he glared at the cat. Sakura had taken up a space on the floor right next to Fuuma, whispering something up with all the glee of her undoubtedly explaining some of the situation. He _barely_ resisted the temptation to storm off and leave the annoying cat right where he sat with aggravating feline grace. "Maybe it won't, but it really isn't _any of your business_ and I would _thank_ you to keep your snout out of other people's affairs."  
>Cerberus shifted onto his paws and stretched out his body in one long movement that involved the curves of his claws slipping out and grazing the floor before returning to a dignified pose. <em>"~As always, I remain ever obedient to the commands of those higher placed then I. Which, of course, as you know, is precisely no one.~"<em> he purred and stepped around Kamui again to begin his slow stalking of the long halls and the shadows that crept around every corner. _"~Be wise to the resolutions of many a desire and many a wish. A deceitful child sees many outcomes and twists them to her own hungers. The Magami will yet validate a burning devotion to the one he addresses as his paramour. The sakura fubuki walks in the shadows of these halls again. Choose your side, whichever it may be, but remember. I will always guard you.~"_  
>And with a twitch of his tail he was slipping into the shade of the stone halls, his last words lingering like a sour smell in the air, tainting some of the joy he'd earned from coming home.<br>There was a gentle tug at the sleeves of his coat, and he looked down to see a pair of gentle green eyes that watched him without judgment. "Are you okay Nii-chan?" Sakura asked, the old nickname coming to her lips with an ease that Kamui wasn't sure he felt yet.  
>He looked at Fuuma, who stood close enough to be noticed, but not interfering, and felt a sense of destiny wrapping about them, that something was about to be decided for them, perhaps brutally.<br>But he couldn't tell that to his little sister, and instead he smiled down at her. "I don't like it when he says stuff that I don't understand, and we all know that."  
>The way that her smile didn't completely fill her eyes told Kamui without words needed that she didn't believe him, but she chose to not say anything about it. "So...Kamui, do you think that you and Fuuma-san are up to a race?" she asked instead, an impish grin tugging her smile into one that mirrored their mother's in a very eerie manner.<br>He had a sneaking suspicion he knew where she was going with it. "If it were just us, I'd be able to outrun him easily." he said lazily, casting a glance towards Fuuma, who appeared to understand exactly what was about to happen.  
>If he could trust Fuuma with his life, he could certainly trust him to a game.<br>Sakura's grin lit up more, shining through her green eyes. "Then we'll just balance it out; you have to carry me through the whole race!"  
>It was the smallest of efforts to get her on his back, her strong arms wrapping around his shoulders as he positioned himself to run, seeing the very pleased smile on Fuuma's face. "To the gardens!" the little vampire cheered as they both shifted into the best positions for continued running. "Go!"<br>Kamui was smiling even as they both broke into a fast run, Sakura's laughter drifting through the halls as Kamui led them through the halls he knew very well.  
>It was nice to be home again.<p>

The race was really rather one-sided, since Fuuma had no idea where he was supposed to be going, nor could he easily skip three and four steps on the very sharply carved stairs like the pair of vampires could, even with Sakura probably hampering the amount of speed that Kamui could reach. He had the feeling that Kamui was staying close enough that he wouldn't get lost though, as they reached the end of the gruesome stairs, and there was a flash of pink fabric as the two of them moved just ahead of him to round a corner, the ends of her dress fluttering like butterfly wings floating home.  
>The doors that the other two were headed for stood open, sunlight drifting in lazily and alighting on the floor, and he could see a line of green just beyond a pale cobblestone path.<br>Once again, he managed, either through Kamui being actually overly physically exerted, or just slowing down enough to match back up with him, and he caught sight of matching exhilarated grins on both of the vampire sibling's faces.  
>The sun washed over both of them with a brightness that almost burned after the amount of time cloistered indoors, and he almost missed Kamui's hiss of "right turn", and he obeyed the command as sharply as he could, pulling air into his body almost desperately as tall stone walls appeared by the edge of the building, filled with a riot of color.<br>They reached the garden within minutes of seeing it, with him completely out of breath. Fuuma bent over and tried to pretend that he wasn't gasping for air like he'd forgotten to breathe for two minutes or more. He couldn't recall running that hard for that long in years, and his heart was hammering against his rib cage.  
>Sakura was laughing gaily, clinging to Kamui as her voice rang about the area. Kamui grinned up at her, barely showing any signs of his physical exertion. "That was fun." Sakura informed him through her laughter.<br>"So who won?" Fuuma asked, still slightly winded, as he nevertheless managed to stand up straight again.  
>Kamui let out a huff of air as Sakura slid off of his back in a careful tangle of pink sleeves and skirt. "Sakura did."<br>The girl in question was giving Kamui the same look that Fuuma was. "Kamui," she started, "You two would have crossed before I did."  
>He looked back at her with a look that Seishirou had often used on him when he asked really stupid questions. "Fuuma and I reached it at the same time. Since I don't think that Fuuma can do a tie-breaker race, you won, because you're in the best shape of all of us after that."<br>Fuuma nodded in agreement when she looked over at him, and then she grinned. "You're out of practice if you're tired after this, Kamui." she told her brother.  
>Kamui's mock frown was almost comical, and Sakura squeaked and jumped away as he reached out to tug at one of the long strands of hair dropping below her chin. "Kamui!" she laughed as she batted away his hand.<br>Fuuma took the moment, now that his breathing was more or less back to normal, to look around at their ending point. The stone gates stood behind them, or maybe it was more of a breach in the wall; there were no doors to be found. Ivy climbed up the wall, each vine reaching for the sun and leaving only tiny shreds of gray to peek out dimly from under the choking green. The grass around the wall was growing in uneven leaps and bounds, where it seemed like a thousand plants competed, or cooperated for the earth, little white flowers lay sprinkled in the tangle like fallen stars. And past that...  
>Past that lay an artful <em>riot<em> of color, flowers that grew with any and all reason, and beyond that. From blue to pink to red to orange to yellow to purple, to all the hues a thousand times more vibrant and nameless, bright and carelessly alive. Beyond the flowers lay trees that looked as if they'd stood for a hundred years, and would stand a hundred years more.  
>If there was a garden of the gods, this had to be the closest thing to it.<br>"Do you want to see it up closer?" Kamui's voice pulled him from his reverie, and Fuuma looked over to see the vampire smirking at him, fangs barely flashed in a way that probably wasn't meant to be a threat of any shape or form.  
>Sakura stood on his other side, looking up with very green eyes, and he looked out again at the garden. "Yes." he said to the smiles of both vampires. "I do."<br>Kamui led the way almost immediately, walking down a stream of shorter grasses like a hunting fox padding along the trails towards prey. Sakura tugged on his hand, and Fuuma followed the both of them, not concealing his admiration of the vast variety of color spreading out on either side of him, all of them with bright faces turned to the noonday sun.  
>"The Sumeragi clan takes care of the flowers," Sakura explained as they passed a patch of pale pink cosmos, all of them <em>slowly<em> shifting their faces towards Kamui as they slowed. "That's what clan gift me and Mother and Kamui have. If Kamui changes you, you'll have it too."  
>Kamui shot her a warning stare, but she only <em>looked<em> back at him, and Fuuma resisted the urge to be loudly amused about their ways of communication without words.  
>She continued as Kamui decided to lead them through a twist of trees, heavy green leaves pulling down on the branches of willows as the first glitter of a pond reflected the sunlight at them. "There's not a lot of us left, it's considered a <em>recessive<em> trait among the talents of our family, but most of us still around are young. Unlike the Magami."

The book unexpectedly flashed into his mind, fragile pages threatening to crumble to pieces and leave vital information as only dust. _"The Magami are the rarest of the vampire clans, and the most dangerous. Whereas all the other clans are gifted with powers turned towards the intention of life, the Magami can and will offer only death at their hands. No hunter has survived a battle with them, and only the youngest without control can be killed at all by the hands of humans. Their gifts allow them to summon from tainted hands, an element. Which element is not always known, for it varies among the clan, but fire, ice, wind and tides have all been seen. Should you encounter them, run, and hope that fate is kind enough to allow your escape._  
>"Never <em>engage a Magami."<em>  
>"Fuuma-san?" Sakura asked, sounding like she'd asked before. "Is everything all right?"<br>He turned his smile on her, hoping to conceal the twinge of unease he'd felt. "I'm fine, I was just lost in thought for the moment."  
>The look she gave him flat out said that she didn't believe him, but she let it go, continuing to lead him onwards. "My pond is up ahead." she said as Kamui vanished around a tree trunk, appearing again on the other side as he began to pick through higher foliage. "You can meet my fish, and maybe Kendappa if she's left the lake again."<br>He blinked at her, but decided not to question yet another person mentioned who he didn't know. "Can you talk to the fish?" he asked, half not asking about more people and half honestly curious.  
>"Yup." she grinned, turning them around the same tree as Kamui. "I can hear the voices of all animals, and plants, and water. Kamui can hear the voices of the rain, and the sunrise, and the world, and lots of other things, but I can dreamsee a little bit, so it balances out."<br>He looked down at her. "And what can Subaru do?"  
>The grin almost dropped from her face, certainly fading out. "Subaru-nii-chan...his gift is unhappy. He's unhappy with it. But it's powerful, very powerful." She seemed to be looking at him with eyes that saw more than he expected. "I would tell you, but you're going to see soon anyway."<br>He opened his month to ask her more, but then they were arriving at a bridge, and she let go of his hand to slip around to the bank. On the other side, he saw Kamui standing there, watching the both of them. There was another man, probably a vampire, standing with him, a rather dorky grin on his face.  
>Sakura knelt by the water, and beckoned him over, heedless of the fact that her skirts were being firmly ground into the mud. "Look!" she swept her hand over the water, and he saw two bright golden fish emerge from the murky depths. "Hello Utako-chan, hello Akira-san." she greeted the fish, dropping her fingers into the water.<br>Both of the fish swam close enough to butt their heads against her fingertips, and her smile grew wider. "Is that so?" she asked him, and received another head-butting, as well as one of the fish gently nibbling at one finger. "Well she should come out and say hello if she's here."  
>The taller of the vampires on the other bank looked up at that comment. "Is Missy hiding in <em>your<em> pool?" he called over eagerly.  
>Sakura opened her mouth to reply, but Kamui got there first. "You already scared her off for the day Sorata. She's not going to be in there."<br>"It's Kendappa who's here," Sakura added to the man's more comical disappointment. "Utako-chan says that Arashi says that _even_ if you bring her strawberries, she's not coming out."  
>The man sighed dramatically, and Kamui rolled his eyes in something that Fuuma recognized as a common occurrence. But then he seemed to actually notice Fuuma, and then his depression abruptly disappeared to be replaced by energy. "Hello person on the other side of the pond!" he greeted exuberantly.<br>Fuuma blinked at him, and blinked again. Next to the loud man, Kamui had dropped his face into one hand. "_Sorata_." he hissed in a muffled tone.  
>'Sorata' didn't seem to take the hint. "Nice to meet you, I'm Sorata, but everyone I can convince calls me Sora-chan. Feel free to use it as much as you like."<br>Fuuma stared at him, feeling rather perplexed. Kamui's expression as much said that he'd be willing to stick his claws through Sorata's neck to make him shut up...yet he seemed completely unfazed by the killing intent radiating next to him.  
>A gentle tug on his sleeve drew him back down to see Sakura's fish friends swimming very close to the surface. "They would like to greet you." she said, and he didn't doubt a word of it.<br>"What do I need to do?" he asked her, looking down at the flashing scales of the fish, briefly lit up through even briefer dapples of sunlight cutting through the heavy leaves above.  
>She smiled at him and gently took hold of his hand, to draw it into the water. "Just this."<br>Fuuma resisted the sudden urge to jerk back his hand as they immediately swam over, their cold flesh brushing eerily across his skin. Sakura held his hand in the water with a gentle firmness, something that he really only associated with her other brother, the one who wasn't there.  
>"They like you." she said with a smile as a fragile fin rippled over the pad of his finger. "They say that you are as gentle as any Sumeragi. With a good heart."<p>

He couldn't help but smile at the glittering fish underneath his fingertips, and how soft they seemed. Seishirou would probably call _him_ soft for the thoughts, but Seishirou was Seishirou and would never see the world the way that the rest of them did.  
>Kamui made a growling sound at Sorata, the tips of his claws sliding out from his nails, just long enough to be a clear threat, and Sakura's releasing of his hand implied his intervention was necessary.<br>"Ka_mui_." Sorata whined, his face almost comically serious, but completely destroyed by the teasing glint in his eyes. "Why won't you help me talk to Missy? She listens to you."  
>Fuuma was onto the bridge before Kamui responded with a dark hiss. "She doesn't <em>listen<em> to me, she simply rants about the amount of stupidity that you show her. Leave her alone and she'll come back out."  
>Sorata's flicking of eyes towards Fuuma froze him on the bridge, and then he understood why, as Kamui slowly backed away, claws still present in their warning state. The other man almost couldn't hold back his grin as he continued on his rather strange tirade. "But you know I can't help it!" he exclaimed at the disgusted vampire. "The way her hair shines against her damp skin, and how she can vanish and reappear in a second, and how <em>gorgeous<em> she is whenever she's swimming, you can't tell me that you don't like that!"  
>"Well I <em>don't<em>." Kamui snarled, the thump of his heel on the bridge adding emphasis to the harder word. "I don't want to hear a thing about your desire for her. It's more information than I'll _ever_ need."  
>Fuuma leaned on the bridge, and wondered why Sorata suddenly felt the need to grin quite like that, and he noticed out of the corner of his eye, Sakura vacating the edge of the bank, to draw back into the ferns, pink skirt stained with mud.<br>"Kamui, every healthy young man needs plenty of information on certain amorous acts." Sorata called up at the both of them. "I'm sure that your friend would agree with me in a heartbeat."  
>"Well I don't need <em>your<em> advice." Kamui yelled back, any trace of dignity smashed into the mud like Sakura's dress. "It's way too much information, and not helpful."  
>He thought he might have heard something else under Kamui's yelling, the trilling of a harp resounding in a suddenly glassy clear pond. Sorata had also backed away from the edge as Sakura had, and Fuuma suddenly had the impression that on the bridge was a <em>very bad place to be.<em>  
>The water <em>threw<em> itself from the pond and over the both of them before he had the time to move away from the bridge, and Kamui let out a completely undignified splutter as some green gunky plant landed in his hair. Bell-like laughter and the chiming of harps rang out as Fuuma pulled off his glasses to try and wipe the droplets off, only to be defeated by the sheer amount of water that was soaking into his clothes. In his opinion, Kamui's outrage was justified.  
>Kamui pushed away the weeds from his hair and his bangs free of his eyes, and shot a death-giving glare at the woman who was now perched on a rock on the other end of the bridge from the two vampires who had not been attacked. "Kendappa!" he was practically screaming with anger and probable embarrassment, claws digging into the hard wood of the bridge.<br>Fuuma got a better look at her as he managed to shake enough of the water off to see through his glasses again, and half-wished he hadn't as he realized she was unclothed, and quite unashamed of this fact.  
>Long black hair hung down her body in faint ripples, descending back into the water like a chain to the deep, and she was as white as alabaster. With eyes as blue as a lie and a mischievous grin to go with the mischief that her pose put her in, she was even more obviously someone too perfect to be human.<br>Another thing that helped with the image of her inhumanity were the long fins that hung down from her hips, translucent and clinging to her thighs, the long webs that connected her fingers to each other, and the fact that she had appeared out of nowhere.  
>"You haven't changed at all." she greeted Kamui, and Fuuma hastily turned his gaze away from her, under the pretense of trying to shake more water out of his clothes. "One would think that you wouldn't yell over the Yaobikuni bridge if you want to stay dry. Every one of us knows that the proper solution for a hot temper is cool water."<br>Kamui's snarl said that her greetings were not appreciated, and he almost could understand the fact. "Damn _mer_-"  
>"Now, now." she interrupted with a smirk, and Fuuma gave up on trying to not look at her at all and settled for not openly staring. "You didn't tell us that you were home, you left it to be told to us by the water."<br>Kamui made a rude suggestion as to what the water could do with its information passing, and Sakura made an offended sound in response. Kendappa appeared completely unfazed by his creative use of language, and only tilted her head to the side so that long waves of black slid about her body. "We did miss you, silly child."  
>Kamui opened his mouth; closed it, and then said in a much softer voice, still strained with anger, but also gentler. "I...missed being home." he admitted to her alone, and then his moment of calmness was broken again as he returned to his state of hot-headed fury. "But that <em>doesn't<em> mean that I wanted a pond bath!"  
>Kendappa winked at him, and Fuuma was <em>not affected<em> by that, honestly, and then grinned. "You always say that you don't want something, but the answer is usually the opposite. Keep that in mind, child of camellias." The last sentence seemed targeted towards him in specific, and Fuuma winced without meaning to as the bed of bloody flowers leaped to mind.

She waved at all of them, blew a kiss at Sakura; who had cautiously crept around to see her better, and then vanished into the water in a blur of black and white and motion.  
>Kamui made an incoherent sound of anger and shook himself like a dog, sending water droplets back all over Fuuma. "Damn her, always sticking her nose in <em>my<em> business like it's where she needs to be. And _now_ the _others_ will be expecting me to see them while we're here." he muttered under his breath, clutching and releasing the bridge railing in agitation.  
>Sakura walked onto the bridge, and then straight past them to Sorata, who looked not even a little bit repentant for his part in all of this, and then let out a surprised yelp of pain as she drove the heel of her foot into his. "Sorata-san, you know better!"<br>He grinned at her, and Kamui, looking away to the scene, hissed back at Fuuma so that the other two wouldn't hear, "He hasn't learned either."  
>"No, I really haven't." Sorata told the bristling vampiress, "But it was funny."<br>Sakura huffed in anger and stomped on his foot again. "I'll tell Arashi if you pull any more tricks on my brothers."  
>Sorata flinched so comically that Fuuma snorted at the utter destruction of his confidence, and then bowed to her. "Sorry Sakura-chan, I'll actually repent and not play any more tricks on your brothers."<br>She crossed her arms, and her resemblance to Hokuto was so obvious it burned. "Go do something useful."  
>Sorata retreated, looking slightly scared, but then grinned at them all. "Nice meeting you Fuuma-san!" he called up before vanishing into the woods. The sound of foliage breaking under his feet echoed for a few seconds longer, then faded out as well. Sakura huffed through her nose, and then turned back to the two of them. "Are you alright, Fuuma-san?" she asked, all annoyance discarded.<br>He smiled back down at her. "I've been in worse things than a pond bath." But he still got off of the bridge as soon as possible.  
>Kamui grumbled as he got down, "Someday I'm going to <em>kill<em> one of them for all of this." he hissed at his sister.  
>She reached up and patted his arm gently. "And I'm sure that they will deserve it when you get angry enough to attack people that you like. Now, do you want to backtrack to the castle, or just go the rest of the way back and then get clean?"<br>Kamui looked at the bridge, and past, and then back towards them. "It's longer to go back." he explained, and Sakura smiled at him as he came over to them. "There's really only one other thing interesting past the bridge anyway." he explained to Fuuma as she began to lead the both of them again.  
>"What's that?" he asked Kamui as he willingly fell into step behind the younger vampire.<br>Kamui's smile was strangely dark and bitter, like chocolate with no sugar within, strong and fathomless. "Subaru's garden."  
>Something about the way that he said it made conversation seem dull and unimportant, and Fuuma let the silence stretch past them as the trees thinned out slowly, the passing a little easier with each step.<br>The sun sliced through the air as they broke free of the line of trees, and a high wall appeared to their collective right, tall enough to block away the hills in their massive expanse. The grass grew shorter here; but it could be explained by a larger amount of shadows covering the area where they walked, tiny little white flowers glittering up like flakes of stars.  
>And on their left...the forest continued to taper into a point that ended at the castle itself, and past that...there was a <em>wall<em> of flowers, climbing over each other in a desperate attempt to reach the high sun, vines choking out the undergrowth so a tangle of yellow lurked under it.  
>Sakura shivered as she looked at it, and he could almost understand why. If this was Subaru's garden, then why was it so violent in its growth? Uncontrolled and left to kill itself in an attempt to live didn't seem like the shy vampire he knew, nor did the nature of the emotions radiating from it match up at all with his image of Subaru.<br>Kamui alone out of the three of them seemed unaffected by the feelings of the flowers, walking over with a pride all his own. "Yes, this is Subaru's garden." he answered Fuuma's unspoken question. "I don't know why it seems like this, or why it grows when it should be dead from how it grows, but it lives."  
>The sunlight beat down on the vampire, and lit the ends of his hair enough that blue tints seemed to appear from the blackness of it, as he stopped in front of it to touch the enormous petals of a light purple flower. "For anyone who enters our gates, it is a warning." he continued. "Of the power that we can use, and do. Flowers that grow where they can't are terrifying to people who know of the sakura fubuki."<br>Something about the way he said it left Fuuma feeling cold, despite the fact that he was under the weight of the afternoon sun. "The cherry blossom snowstorm?" he translated uneasily.  
>Kamui shook away the heaviness of the words. "If you only know the meaning of the words themselves, then it's alright." A smirk entered his eyes, and he ran his gaze over Fuuma. He felt tempted to blush, but remained steady.<p>

Somehow.

"It's getting later." Sakura broke the spell between them, looking at the sun directly enough that her eyes glowed like gemstones from the intensity of the rays.  
>Kamui smiled at her, "Yes it is, and it'll be dinner time soon. We need to get clean" he added, running his eyes over Fuuma again with a grin.<br>Sakura's smile grew bright again. "I'll talk to Mom, I'm sure that she'll have something that Fuuma can wear. You two should go get clean now."  
>And she abruptly left them behind to run to the open doors, a flower in the grass.<br>Fuuma watched her go for a moment, before his attention was drawn back to Kamui, who had somehow slunk up to his side without him noticing. "Shall we go?" the vampire invited in a tone that was definitely making fun of someone, even if he didn't have a clue who yet.  
>He nodded, and they walked away from the garden of chaos in step, the sun counting down the seconds of the day.<p>

Going back into the castle, it seemed suddenly darker, like a shade had been cast over all the elegant window frames despite the lack of change in the sky, but Kamui knew that it was a side effect of leaving a bright space for _any_ other not in the direct light.  
>Fuuma followed behind him rather like a lost kitten, and almost as quietly too, the only sounds betraying his movement being the scuff of his shoes on stone and his constant breathing. Before he'd grown used to the relative rhythm of the sound, it annoyed him to hear that continual reminder to any predator of his whereabouts, now it was just a friendly confirmation that everything was alright.<br>He thought that he caught a glimpse of Hinoto's luminescent hair in one of the side halls, drifting in a slow white line that trailed beyond her fragile form, but as they turned onto it, she was nowhere in sight. He frowned, and stared more cautiously as they turned another corner, but she remained as elusive as a dream.  
>Fuuma ran slightly to keep up with him, and Kamui reminded himself that the human, although in fantastic shape, couldn't move as fast as him without having to run, and slowed accordingly. The sound of his heartbeat sped up as he moved back into a walking pace, each brief placing of his shoe setting his pace.<br>"Where are we going?" Fuuma asked, glancing about the halls with a barely concealed admiration of all the details carved and engraved in the walls, a thousand years of history that told stories he didn't even know where to _begin_ to read. He almost smiled fondly at the amazement that Fuuma held for this place, and for his unbiased way of seeing everything.  
>He met Fuuma's eyes squarely, not letting the glasses between them try and hide anything. "We're going to my rooms." he answered, indicating by shifting closer to a corner that they were going to turn it, "Dinner's in about two hours, and we need to clean up. Especially you." he added, to take some of the weight of his <em>awful<em> clothes off. "You look ridiculous, not at all prepared for a family gathering."  
>If Fuuma's look was on Seishirou's face, he would have called it a pout, although, he supposed, since they were brothers, it wasn't an unreasonable jump to make anyway. "Is it the type of family gathering where everyone dresses up in something elegant and there's five forks to use for dinner?"<br>_'You have no idea.'_ he thought with rather black humor. "Something like that." he replied out loud, choosing to brush away the subtle attempt to learn more about their mealtimes. "And Mother will undoubtedly have something planned for just our family."  
>Fuuma opened his mouth, probably to snark back, but he was cut off by the sudden slam of a door, and Satsuki's appearance. Kamui stopped, and stared at her as she saw him, and then Fuuma, offering all of the weight of his violet gaze on her, and hoping that she'd forgotten which parent's power he had.<br>Clearly, she hadn't, because she didn't back off at all as she cast an appraising eye over Fuuma. "And so you return bringing more mongrel pets." she intoned, eyes bitter behind her glasses. "Where did you find this one?"  
>"A <em>mongrel<em> implies poor breeding, and poor choices." he snapped at her, stepping in front of Fuuma before he got any ideas. "Neither are present in this case. And might I remind you to _who_ you speak of in such a way?"  
>The delicate parries of take and give came back to him almost as easily as the way he set his chin in the air, looked down on her despite their miniscule height differences; and it allowed him to continue to hold that strength.<br>Subaru might have been able to put more weight behind it, but he had always been the twin with more willingness to enter the complexities of these strange politics.  
>Satsuki allowed one of the cords that wrapped around her wrist to snake upwards, twining against her skin in an affection that it shouldn't have been able to show. "I know of whom I speak to." she said with dark amusement, "The child who can't put as much power behind his words as he implies. Do not forget that we know which of you is more worthy."<br>Fuuma continued to say nothing, but Kamui knew that he was seething with annoyance at her attitude.  
>He really couldn't blame him. "Regardless of my gifts, I still am higher ranked than you, and will be unless all of the heirs to your head mysteriously die, which would be a sad thing indeed. And since I am the younger of the dual heirs, that should say something about what I'm allowed to say, and you <em>aren't<em>."  
>He almost wished that she would continue to argue with him, then he could justify sticking his claws through her throat, but instead she made a poor show of a bow to him, a sardonic smirk curving up her lips. "Why yes, my prince Kamui, I will indeed bow to the higher power."<br>She turned about and began to walk back towards the previously abandoned room. "But for all of his gifts, there is nothing that can push your dear brother to using them. For any reason at all."  
>And then she entered the room again, whatever having sent her out before not weighing up to her new foe. Kamui hissed in frustration and curled his hands about themselves until his nails bit into the palm. "Sorry about that." he said to Fuuma, not really meaning the words as much as he could because he was still frustrated, and apologies were so hard to say. "Satsuki's a bitch, except not as fun to smash at her brain as your brother's."<br>Fuuma stepped out cautiously from behind him, looking about the room as if to find any other scary glasses bearing vampires. "So that's why you spend so much time being contrary at him?" he asked, and yet there was only some of his attention being devoted to the question. "Because it's fun to push his buttons."  
>Kamui sighed and turned away from the hallway that Fuuma was looking down, heading in the opposite direction for the stairs. "I spend so much time 'being contrary' at him because I honestly can't stand him. He's childish, spoiled, selfish and he spends way too much time clinging to <em>my<em> brother."

Fuuma let out a chuckle as they reached the stairs, letting Kamui go first, and studying the carved cat head that made up the post of the banister. "So in other words, you don't like him because he acts like you do?"  
>He whipped around suddenly to stare in disbelief at the man, smirking two steps below him. "<em>How<em> do you think that he acts _anything_ like I do?"  
>Fuuma was utterly unfazed by the act of annoyance, and that was almost as worrying as being compared to Seishirou. "It's not that hard to see from an outsider's point of view. You both are extraordinary possessive over people that you feel like you need to protect; you both are stubborn, petulant, rather bratty, and your first reaction to something bothering you is to solve it with violence."<br>Kamui resisted badly the urge to prove that last statement true, and stomped up the stairs rather than continue to stare at Fuuma in something rapidly growing akin to horror. "We're not alike, at all, and I don't know where you got the idea from."  
>Fuuma's chuckles continued to follow him up the stairs to the seventh floor, a rather tedious and dull walk when not filled with strange thoughts and stranger people. "I know you both really well, and it isn't hard to see it. It's also why you don't get along, you're too alike to connect up like that at all."<br>He was probably grinding his teeth in frustration. "But I don't monopolize _your_ time and refuse to let go of you for any reason." he retorted, aware of how close he was to whining, "So why does he do that with Subaru? And why would Subaru let it?"  
>Fuuma's laughter stopped, and so did his footsteps. Kamui got almost around the bend between the fourth and fifth floors, before realizing that Fuuma had stopped following him. He turned back around and saw Fuuma frozen several steps below, his gaze suddenly turned to the ground.<br>All of his instincts were telling him to go back and find out what he'd said that had caused it, and he listened to them for once, going back down the relevant stairs easily. "Fuuma?"  
>The man let out a sharp breath, and then met Kamui's eyes again, and he was surprised to see the level of bitterness in them. Then they softened. "I keep forgetting that you don't actually really know much about me before Tokyo, other than that Seishirou's my brother." he said softly, taking one step up, and then a second, so that they were at the same eye level. "Our mother wasn't like yours at all; she...didn't care for me, and obsessed over Seishirou to a point that he was practically running away in the mornings and not returning until impossibly late at night, because she smothered him so much."<br>Kamui said nothing, recognizing that to interrupt would be in both poor taste, and might make Fuuma not want to talk anymore.  
>"At some point before she died, I guess that Subaru came to our world, because what she kept trying to break in him was restored, enough that he was able to stand up to her. She didn't like it very much, and kept threatening to kill me. But one day, she vanished, and Seishirou said that she was dead and couldn't hurt <em>us<em> anymore." Fuuma continued to deal out what were undoubtedly only the barest traces of his past to him, enough to no longer leave him out of the loop, and Kamui felt a wave of sympathy for the man, and how strong he'd grown despite the issues of his home. He couldn't imagine what he'd be like now if Hokuto and Tohru hadn't been the people they were, or if they'd hated him.  
>"So I think, with my brother and yours, that Subaru probably showed up at the point where Seishirou was beginning to run out of hope that he could ever win against her, and whatever Subaru did prevented him from falling apart. But it's a fragile fix, and what keeps him hoping and trying, is to basically attach himself to Subaru and protect both of them from the world. And Subaru probably needs that level of attachment and obsession on a level that no one else can give to him." Fuuma concluded with a harsh laugh. "But who am I to say? I'm not either one of them, and I certainly don't have what they have."<br>Seeing the heady loneliness on Fuuma's face, stark naked to all of the emotions lurking within, Kamui was able to let go of all of his petty frustrations, and all of his fears that he would be rejected to do this.  
>Slowly, he reached out, and put his hand on Fuuma's shoulder. "You aren't alone. Not any more." he said, and Fuuma's eyes widened in surprise. "And...even if it isn't what they have...I'm here." he offered lamely, and then turned his face away in embarrassment, expecting Fuuma to laugh at him.<br>But he didn't.  
>Instead he reached up and touched his hand, as tenderly as any child offered comfort where expecting none. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, and then opened them again, whatever cold pain lurking below either soothed or pushed away for a better time to expose scars left in vulnerable places.<br>His throat seemed to dry up a little, and he cleared it awkwardly. Fuuma caught the vague cue and thankfully released his hand, beginning to walk up the stairs again. Kamui followed him silently, watching the way he walked, and _really_ noticing for the first time that despite the amount of awe he still showed to the shapes engraved in the stones, that he never truly let down his guard.  
>"Thank you." the words came without eye contact, or slowing, and Kamui allowed himself to smile at the man in front of him, climbing the winding stairs without complaint.<br>He could hear Fuuma breathing heavier than before as they reached the sixth floor, the tendrils of a sun slowly slinking away into the hills coloring the floor a rosy grey. He showed no signs of slowing his steady pace, but it was starting to wear him out. Kamui followed him, watching the entryway to the stairs for signs of any other unwanted cousins lurking in the shadows.  
>Again, he thought he saw a trail of Hinoto's hair sliding along the floor, before getting a better look and not seeing her at all.<br>Kamui scowled at the idea that she _was_ following without them being able to see, but he knew that her powers shouldn't have been able to extend to illusions and images; being a dreamseer and limited to that realm.  
>But that didn't mean that she hadn't learned how to use more in the years they had been away, and that was the part that kept him watching the shadows more intently then before. Watching for something that would say that it hadn't been as good an idea as they'd thought. Watching for anything that might harm his family.<p>

The hallway vanished as they rounded the last set of stairs before his floor, Fuuma's ragged breathing more pronounced, and yet some pride kept the man from trying to show it at all. Kamui resisted the urge to smack him upside the head for being so stubborn, and not slowing down.  
>They reached the last of the stairs at last, and when Kamui stepped off of the landing, he took the chance to look the man face to face and see just how stupidly stubborn he had been.<br>His heartbeat was already rapid enough to waylay any doubt that he might have been in better shape than he sounded, and yes, he was struggling with his breath in a painfully obvious way.  
>"You didn't have to climb it that fast." Kamui scolded, bracing his hands on his hips like his mother would do when lecturing him and Subaru on something that they weren't supposed to have done. He could see, or rather feel, why she would do it, it felt strangely powerful and looming to have his hands actually connected to him and in such a foreboding position.<br>However sadly, and most likely from years of training via Seishirou on how to not be intimidated by everything in sight, it did nothing to implant the idea in Fuuma's mind that he had not chosen the best course of action. "It's not easy to climb those stairs, I didn't want to spend more time on them then I had to." Fuuma retorted, not looking frustrated, but a slightly uneven sound entering his tone that was easily chalked up to the relative lack of breath.  
>Kamui sighed deeply and turned away from the man, stalking off down the hallway. "You wouldn't be almost falling over now if you walked up them at a more reasonable pace." he called back, not turning around to look at Fuuma, but hearing footsteps start up anyway. "If you die of exhausting yourself by climbing stairs faster than your heart can take it, I'm going to be annoyed at you."<br>"I know what my limits are." Fuuma said calmly. "I'm not going to commit suicide by stairs any time soon."  
>Kamui growled under his breath as he stopped in front of the door that he knew very well as his. "Your brother has ruined your sense of snark." he complained, and just <em>knew<em> that Fuuma was smirking at him as he messed with the handle. "What did Mother do to my door?" he asked no one in particular as the lock stubbornly refused to open.  
>Pushing down on the handle harder than what should have been necessary set the door swinging on silent hinges, and he walked into the room quickly, noting that the deep purple curtains that he'd shut before leaving the last time still hung serenely against the single window out.<br>The door closed again behind Fuuma, and for a moment they were shrouded in what must have been total darkness for the human before he opened up the curtain for the first time in years, and let the heady sunlight spill in through a sudden cloud of dust.  
>He couldn't stop the grin of satisfaction from crawling onto his face as Fuuma's eyes visibly widened at the first sight of his room.<br>It was just as how he'd left it, other than not quite as clean from the amount of dust that had collected. The large violet couch sprawled against the wall with all of the brightly colored cushions his mother had felt were necessary to adore it was just as mussed as the last time he'd taken an inadvertent nap on it, and the rug still had the corner bent from kicking it. The candles in his lamps had been replaced, but that was alright, and explained the dust being not as heavy as expected, and the fireplace had logs arranged carefully in it for him to light. And both of the doorways out of his sitting room still had their own curtains hanging over them to prevent unwanted snoopers.  
>It was nice to have something of his not massively changed after all this time.<br>Fuuma made appropriate sounds of awe as he walked over to sit on the couch, looking up at the gaudy painting hanging above his fireplace. Kamui didn't suppress the smile when looking at it, remembering Keiichi's grin before giving it to him.  
>He struggled with the curtain before he found the tie that bound it to the side of the wall, pinning it open before going over to push the window open and let out the dust before Fuuma was smothered in it.<br>More sunlight streamed in as the dusty windows were opened wide to the day, and Kamui took a moment to continue staring out the window as some of the dust whirled about like falling stars and rushed along on the air disturbed by motion.  
>Fuuma walked over to him and inhaled in the clearer air outside, having obviously been refusing to cough in the dust until now.<br>Kamui looked at the man for a second, and then pulled a piece of algae that Fuuma must have missed when attempting to remove the pond from himself, tossing it down to the far away earth with a scowl. "You need a bath." he told the other, wrinkling his nose at the smell of drying pond water right by his face.  
>Fuuma gave him a look, but didn't seem that offended. "Where can I take one?" he asked, brushing at a smear of dirt on his cheek.<br>He gave him a flat look, and walked away from the window towards one of the curtained doors. "Here." He said, gesturing towards the room.  
>The man pulled himself away from the window to look in, and his expression took on a form of awe. Kamui smirked and left him with the sight of his bathroom while moving over to the other doorway.<br>His bed had been changed and undusted probably around the same time as adding firewood and candles, and he ran a hand over the soft comforter appreciatively, and then narrowed his eyes at the clothes neatly folded and neatly _dumped_ near the head of his bed, the amount of fabric folded up in it making it already seem too large for him.  
>Skirting around the bed, he picked up the shirt, and a piece of paper tumbled out of the folds. Picking that up with more narrowing of the eyes, he saw his mother's elegantly creative handwriting sprawling out a message that this set of clothes was for Fuuma to get dressed in, and not to torment him about her already knowing what size to make them.<br>Looking at the shirt closer and noting that it was one of her ornately crazy and yet strangely comfortable creations, he decided that it was better to not even ask himself what she had planned, and scooped up the rest of them hurriedly, dropping the note to the floor below.  
>The sound of running water splashing into the bowl of the tub caught his attention as he walked back over to the bathroom, and he glanced through the curtain before walking in.<br>Fuuma, to his credit, didn't visibly show his surprise, although his heartbeat jumping to a more rapid pace certainly gave it away to him. Kamui thrust the clothes that had grown significantly less neat at him and fought the urge to look at the skin that had not been attacked by mud and algae since Fuuma had tossed aside the shirts he was wearing.  
>The man took the clothes away from him with no small level of confusion. "Are these for me?" he asked uncertainly.<br>Kamui scowled and walked over to the curtained off shower in the corner of the room, installed at his request after perhaps one too many complaints at the amount of time it took to fill the bathtub, dropping his coat on the floor as he went. "Blame Mother." he tossed back without looking.  
>There was no reply, but the sound of running water was disturbed and distorted for a moment, and he assumed that Fuuma was checking the water temperature.<br>Reaching around the curtain, he felt for the spigot handle, flipping it around until his sleeve was hit with a wave of frigid water. "Fuck." he gasped as he yanked his hand out of the spray, shaking icy drops all over the stone floor.

Fuuma flinched away from the flying drops, looking slightly awkward. "Should I be using the shower instead?" he asked with obvious confusion. "I was going to use the bath, but-"  
>"You take the bath." he interrupted, shaking the clinging sleeve of his shirt before giving up on getting the water out of that and undoing the ties on it with all due haste. "I'll take a shower."<br>The shirt was tossed on the floor with slightly more vitriol than needed and left lying there in a little abused heap. Kamui gave it a continued dark look, as if it were the cause of the frozen water in his shower.  
>Fuuma gaped.<br>Kamui smirked at the man over his shoulder and slid his hand back around the curtain to feel the relative temperature of the air. Still a little chilly, although not as bad as before.  
>Stepping away to move his coat from the walkway, and check the shelves on the other side of the room from the shower to see if there were clean towels there, he noted Fuuma's continued shocked stare, and smirked at him. "See something you like?"<br>Fuuma shut his mouth and hurriedly turned back to addressing his bath with more concentration then needed.  
>Kamui shook his head in surprisingly good temper and undid the ties of his boots, kicking first one, then the other to lie by his shirt. The pants followed it quickly, and he shivered slightly as the last of the lingering warmth from his clothes left him.<br>The sound of water filling the bathtub stopped, and Kamui half turned around to look at what was happening, and saw Fuuma attempting to not look at him while removing his own shirt.  
>He couldn't resist a rather dopey grin as he turned towards the growing heat behind the curtain, stepping around it into the water to Fuuma's almost unheard sigh of relief.<br>The water rushed over him and turned slightly brown as it rinsed away the remains of the pond water, hot and clean. Kamui turned his face into the spray, eagerly drawing in all of the warmth that he could, and sighed in content.  
>The splashing of water from outside his shower, and Fuuma's choked off curse suggested that he'd slipped while getting in. "Kamui, why is your bathtub so deep?"<br>"Because everyone's is." he answered, poking cautiously at the bar of soap that had grown a fuzzy coat of dust in his time away. "For some reason, everyone has a bath tub deep enough to drown in."  
>Fuuma let out another curse word, and the heady scent of lavender invaded his nostrils. "Don't dump all of the bath scents in at once." he added in accompaniment to Fuuma's annoyed sounds. "In case you haven't noticed, they're a little strong."<br>Then he sneezed, but it was all justified.  
>"Why do you have so <em>many<em>?" Fuuma asked, mystified. "And how do they smell that strong?" There was a less overpowering scent of rose added to the mix, and both of them sneezed in sync.  
>Kamui covered his nose with a hand that probably reeked of lavender by now. "Because they came from our garden, and aren't diluted. One drop is enough to make my bath smell. How much lavender did you manage to put in?"<br>There was a silence other than the rumbling of his shower, and then Fuuma answered, with a rather sheepish tone. "More than half the bottle...?"  
>Kamui let his head fall into his hands with a thump as the smell continued to waft around him in horribly strong waves. "Never mind, I don't want to know why you thought that was the necessary amount."<br>From the splashing water emanating from the direction of the tub, Fuuma wholly agreed with him.  
>Kamui let the water continue to run down him for a little while, soaking in the heat and feeling almost as nice as if he'd had a chance to lie in the sun for a while, but he couldn't stay in there forever.<br>He flipped the handle on the spigot until the water slowed to a trickle, and stopped entirely.  
>He pushed aside the curtain, stirring the tides of steam and lavender scent into a mad whirlwind, and dripped his way to the towels, rubbing one over his head roughly before hanging it on his hips, and wrapping it around himself.<br>Turning around, he could see Fuuma not looking at him with a stubborn attitude that rang of getting more of a look than he necessarily was expecting. Kamui grinned at him as he snatched up his coat and headed for the doorway. "Come to my bedroom dressed in five minutes." he called back as he left the heated space.  
>He shivered as he walked across the much cooler stone floors, over to his wardrobe, and opened up the doors with a sneaking suspicion that Hokuto had cleaned them as well.<br>It appeared to be that way, since everything had been arranged by the level of formality to wear them for, and then by color. And she'd even already made a suggestion, by hanging a crisply white shirt, pitch black pants and then a long coat in a shade that suggested the darkest shade of midnight in purple. And for once, it was refreshingly free of unexpected patterns, except for a single silvery star glittering on his right shoulder.  
>He smiled at them.<br>He was hanging up his traveling cloak and admiring the secret depths of warmth lurking in the folds of the deep coat, when the sound of slow footsteps left his bathroom, along with the slurping sound of water rushing down a drain. "Is it alright for me to come in?" Fuuma asked from outside the curtain.  
>Kamui smiled and shut the wardrobe again, walking over to the dust-blurred mirror. "If you mean "Am I not naked anymore," then yes, it's alright for you to come in." He invited, sweeping his sleeve over the reflection of himself so that the image came into much finer being.<br>Fuuma poked his head in cautiously, and then entered in the rest of the way once he caught a glimpse of him, standing by the mirror he was clearing off. "Why didn't you take that coat along with you?" he asked after a moment of silence.  
>Kamui turned to look at him, shaking the last clinging bits of dust away. "Come over here." he told the man instead of answering his question. "You should look in the mirror before you go out with your coat like that."<br>Fuuma offered him a baffled glance, but walked over anyway, and Kamui got his own first good look at the depths of his mother's craft.  
>Because when she wanted to be, she could be incredibly amazing with needle and thread.<br>Kamui smiled as Fuuma got a good look at himself in the mirror, turning slightly to look at the embroidery in the fabric; a snaking dragon coiling up from the bottom of the outer jacket to end with a fiery claw clutched in the collar. On anyone else, the dragon would have been too attention-grabbing, but once again his mother seemed to have an inner sense for what was just right to wear.  
>He had managed to mess up the button order on his coat though, and Kamui suppressed a sigh as he tugged the surprised man away from his self admiring and undid the buttons, swiftly redoing them until the ends were back to being even instead of lopsided.<br>Then he looked up at Fuuma's smirk, and pulled away as if the buttons had suddenly caught fire. "You did them up wrong." he explained quickly, averting his eyes, but it didn't do a single thing to draw away that smirk.  
>Thankfully, Fuuma used his immense skills of common sense and turned his smirk away to glance out the window. "How long is it before dinner?"<br>Kamui shook his head to draw it away from decidedly not innocent thoughts involving unbuttoning coats, and pulled his own shut, linking the chain into the clasp so it stayed shut. "At least another hour, probably closer to two. Why?"  
>Fuuma turned his 'I have a good idea' smile that Kamui was <em>rapidly<em> becoming far more acquainted with than was really fair. "Let's take a nap before struggling with all of the people you don't want to see."  
>He punctuated this by abandoning his window space and flopping over onto the bed with a cat's lazy languorousness.<br>Kamui sighed, and braced his hands on his hips, a position he was _also_ becoming far more acquainted with than was really fair. "Oh really?"

"Yes really." Fuuma said with a grin, squirming under the covers at terrible disaster to the neatness of his clothes. "Come on, I know you get cold easily."  
>Kamui sighed, and walked over to the bed so that he could forcibly remove Fuuma from it, but this action was waylaid by Fuuma grabbing onto him and abruptly pulling him down.<br>He yelped in surprise as one of the blankets was pulled from its neat order and tossed over him, along with a strong arm.  
>"Five minutes, Kamui." Fuuma whispered, and Kamui stopped his struggling as Fuuma rested his head on his shoulder, their faces close enough that it would be <em>easy<em> to pass those last centimeters...Fuuma's breath brushed against his lips in a terribly tantalizing manner. "At least five minutes." he asked softly.  
>Kamui looked at the amount of trust and almost pleading in honey-dark eyes, and sighed, almost missing Fuuma's shudder as the air undoubtedly collided with his face. "Okay, fine." he said sourly, giving in, "but just five minutes."<br>Fuuma smiled at him, and then closed his eyes, his breath slowing rapidly to a pace that showed true sleep overtaking him.  
>Kamui watched as he fell into the realms of Morpheus, watched all of the subtle lines in his face slowly fade away.<br>He reached up, and gently brushed the back of his fingers against Fuuma's cheek before he could squash the urge down.  
>A slow smile spread over his face, now that there was no one to see it.<p>

His mother had left them by the entrance to the dining hall, running off in a flurry of bright skirts and energy to find her other children and let them know that others were showing up. Subaru couldn't even begin to hide how tense he was feeling as he watched Hinoto hobble over to her chair, looking as deceptively waif-like as ever. She looked up with eyes a shade of color just above violet, and he met her gaze evenly.  
>Seishirou stood next to him, reclining against the wall with a careless grace that allowed him to notice all that went on. He almost envied him his outward composure, although the narrowing of his eyes was a sign that not all was as balanced as they could be.<br>Subaru broke eye contact with the Yumemi girl, and shifted awkwardly on the balls of his feet as he waited for Hokuto to return.  
>Seishirou cast him an amused glance, his amber eye showing all the amusement he felt without a hint of guardedness against anyone else walking by, and the corners of his mouth quirked up. "Flower for your thoughts?"<br>He couldn't help but smile at the gentle twisting of the saying, and shook his head. "Just...a feeling." he said, glancing back over at the white-haired girl who now had her eyes aimed demurely at the ground. "But it's nothing."  
>The clicking of heels meant only for alerting others to her presence had them both turn their heads to see Satsuki walk past them coolly, eyes steely behind her omnipresent glasses. She passed between the open doors silently, yet he still heard the less than reassuring whirr of her cords snaking about.<br>He almost jumped as Seishirou abruptly detached himself from the wall to stand by him, tall enough to look over all the others in the room without discomfort. Ever so subtly, enough that no one else probably saw it, Seishirou brushed his hand against his shoulder, offering what comfort he could. "Your instincts haven't been wrong before." The words hovered on the faintest breath, quiet enough for him alone.  
>He let out a long, shaky breath of his own. "If they are right this time, then I'd give anything for them to be wrong. Anything at all."<br>Seishirou's eyes narrowed, the glass of his right eye almost as malevolent as his true eye, and there was a very strong hint of displeasure in his tone. "You shouldn't say things so lightly."  
>He could have backed down, he could have even backed down and not lost any of his standing.<br>But he didn't.  
>"I've had to trust them before," he began, not letting a hint of nervousness leak through his tone any more. "And whenever I have, it's always been that something bad was going to happen. I've prevented it before, but I don't know if I can do it <em>this<em> time...protect our brothers and keep _you_ safe."  
>Seishirou's eye widened, just barely, not enough for anyone not versed in his ways of conversation to know, but for him, it was all he needed to know that Seishirou understood.<br>His lips softened into the faintest of smiles, and he brushed one fingertip against Subaru's cheek. "Still always watching."  
>Subaru turned that hesitant smile back at him, and was relieved to see a little of the sudden tensing in Seishirou die away.<br>"Subaru-san!" The cry echoed at them out of nowhere, and they both spun; Seishirou's hand dropping back to his side as any shreds of gentleness were promptly concealed behind his mask of ice and taunts. Subaru looked at him warningly before turning around to see their greeter.  
>The first thing he noticed was the shimmer of her spirit dog sitting neatly on the ground. The second was when she hugged him tightly, her smile bright. "You're back, you've come home!" she exclaimed, letting go of him after the amount of time generally considered acceptable to hug one's cousin. "Welcome home, Subaru-san." she said with a smile.<br>Seishirou shifted his weight ever so slightly onto the balls of his feet, but made no further movement.  
>Subaru blinked at the grinning girl in front of him, before smiling a little. "I'm home, Yuzuriha-san." He nodded at the spirit dog, who rose on silvery paws to dip his head gracefully. "Inuki-san." he greeted the dog.<br>Inuki made a soft whuffing sound in return.  
>Yuzuriha stepped back from him, gentle energy granting her the grace to dance her movements like Hokuto, and caught a sight of Seishirou, who, although he couldn't see over his shoulder, was most likely not amused at her sudden appearance. "Ah, I'm sorry." she began, bowing with the palms of her hands pressed flat against her thighs. "I'm Yuzuriha Utainu, Subaru-san's cousin. And this is my soul companion, Inuki." she indicated the dog who was more on guard than she. "It is very nice to meet you."<br>Subaru stepped back, the heel of his shoe coming into contact with the edge of Seishirou's, and he could not fight back the blush that sprang into being as Seishirou took the opportunity to wrap his arms around him, pulling Subaru against him tightly. "I'm Seishirou Sakurazuka." the vampire purred with just a hint of satisfaction. "And this is my Subaru."  
>Subaru opened up his mouth, and shut it again, unable to force sound to move.<br>Yuzuriha seemed unfazed by this whole situation, and instead just bowed again and smiled at the both of them. "Hokuto-san asked that I have you two return to her quarters while the others prepare."  
>Inuki tilted his head to look at them.<br>Seishirou grinned, resting his head on Subaru's shoulder rather like a child with a good idea. "Thank you, Yuzuriha-san." he said to her, not relinquishing his grip on Subaru at all. "We'll go on then, before she decides to fetch us herself."  
>Yuzuriha laughed, and walked past them into the dining hall. "Hokuto-san is dangerous like that, isn't she?" she asked Inuki as they vanished from sight.<br>Subaru didn't protest Seishirou's hold, focused as he was on cooling his blush /anyway/. Seishirou teasingly ran his nose up Subaru's neck, leaving him shivering, before slipping away from the confining tension of his hold.  
>Yet his hands never actually left Subaru entirely, one of them coiling about his waist and keeping him close, the other gripping his fingers so sweetly that he smiled.<br>Seishirou offered him an amused grin. "Shall we go?"  
>He didn't answer, he didn't need to. Seishirou knew him far too well to imagine that he would refuse him something without a reason they both already knew. The warmth of his touch burned his side sweetly, and he smiled in content. Leaving behind the main hall towards the dining room, he felt Seishirou's fingers slide and entwine around his own, and he tangled them together as well, locking them together for a little longer.<br>Returning to Hokuto's rooms took very little time, even when caught up in a slow pace and watching the other. No other vampires passed them, they were undoubtedly caught up in the struggles to climb their rather taxing flight of stairs.  
>Subaru felt thankful for that, and guilty for his thankfulness. At least when no others were around, he knew for certain that nothing was lurking in the shadows. Seishirou's grip tightened slightly on him, and he knew that he shared the same desire to guard against what might be concealed in the dark.<br>But even the light could easily hide the worst of things.  
>The doorway to his mother's rooms, colored as it was, was almost a strange beacon in the emptiness of the hall, a place he could only associate with her particular brand of gentleness and caring.<br>Seishirou's grip on his waist and fingers did not loosen in the slightest, and instead he got a rather interesting look, Seishirou's particular way of asking for him to do something.  
>He smiled up at him. "Yes Seishirou-san?"<br>Seishirou's almost pleading look turned completely flat, but he still didn't actually open his mouth to _say_ anything.  
>Subaru continued to smile up at him, fully aware that he was being rather more like Kamui than he usually was, and not entirely sure if it was the best idea.<br>Yesterday, 9:03pm

"Subaru-kun." Seishirou said with a sigh, "Would you _please_ open the door?"  
>He didn't do anything else like Kamui would have, it never even crossed his mind.<br>The door swung open as he pressed the handle down just enough to draw the latch in. Subaru let the door continue to move, listening to it gently impact against the wall, before walking in with Seishirou still attached to him.  
>His mother sat on the couch she'd perched on before, an ornate box balanced on her lap, and a strangely melancholy expression on her face. But when she heard them, she lifted up her head with such a blindingly bright grin that he <em>knew<em> that she concealed something behind it.  
>Seishirou let go of his waist with some regret lingering in the trails of gentle fire he left on Subaru's skin through his clothes, but did not release his hand. "You wanted us?" he asked, without any regard for the levels of politeness that usually were needed when invited into private rooms.<br>Hokuto looked at him from under the fringe of bangs sliding down just above her eyes. And then ignored his question. "Subaru, come here," she said, standing up in a rush of bright fabric, the box cradled tenderly in her arms.  
>He obeyed her, Seishirou coming along through their linked fingers, and stopped in front of her patiently. "Yes, Mother?"<br>She ran a gloved fingertip over the lid of the box as she lifted it for them to see; that look of melancholy tenderness returning to her face. "Don't think I haven't noticed that despite you both claiming each other-" Seishirou made a face at the ambiguous statement, but did not interrupt for once, "that you don't seem to wear the necklaces that signify it."  
>Seishirou opened his mouth, and then shut it. Subaru didn't say anything either, but he caught both Seishirou's guilty glance that was most likely invisible to everyone else, and yet so did his mother, the calculating gaze in her eyes left no doubt.<br>But she didn't seem to want to dredge up things between them that still stung on both ends. Instead, she gently wrapped fingertips around the latch of the box, not quite opening it, but about to. "I've been saving these ever since your father died...since I didn't need to wear mine and he'd left his behind." She glanced up at Seishirou, but there was nothing that laid any blame at his feet, only a calm acceptance and affection for him, even when she had only known him for a few hours. "I was going to wait to give them to you, but now I'm not." she whispered, emotion thickening her voice, and opened up the box with not a shred of hesitation in the action.  
>In even the moment of looking, it was almost obvious as to what she held, but he hadn't expected it. Subaru couldn't stifle the gasp that rose to hand as he saw what lay within, something he'd almost forgotten how they'd worn with such pride.<br>Two necklaces rested next to one another, gleaming in the low light of the throne room. The chains lay coiled up underneath, and they had obviously been cleaned since the last time they were worn. They varied in the design in the center, and he could see where his and Kamui's designs came from, Hokuto's bird and Tohru's sword. He looked at his mother, saw that despite all of the emotions lurking behind her smile, that her hands did not shake in the slightest. "A-are you sure?"  
>She smiled with all of the wisdom that motherhood and being a widow had given her. "As sure as I always have been." Then her smile grew to a grin, and she brandished the box more firmly in front of them. "Now come on, don't make me stand here all day holding the box.<br>Seishirou's hand clenched tighter around his own, and when Subaru looked up at him, he could see the confusion and fear as if Seishirou were naked before him. He was scared of the amount of trust that someone who he had assumed would hate him had placed in him.  
>He was the one who needed to take initiative. He reached out, hesitantly, it should be said, but with his will nonetheless.<br>The metal of the sword seemed to warm under his fingertips, fit into the palm of his hands almost perfectly. The chain slid off the back of his hand as he took it away from the box, and clinked gaily. Seishirou looked at him with an eye as open to the world as he would ever be.  
>Subaru smiled at him, gently withdrawing his hand from Seishirou's grip to spread out the chain enough to place it around his neck. Hokuto's hissed comment of 'Use the words' did not go unnoted, and as the chain settled into place, he moved his fingers from shoulder to cheek.<br>"_Shei mainaeso ae sonsei saie, lyier naenim alshae."_ he whispered to his rather startled partner, and embraced him.  
>Seishirou's nails bit into his back, and he let out a shaky breath. "I'm supposed to give you one too, right?" he asked Subaru's shoulder, the words barely loud enough to reach his ears.<br>"Mother would prefer it if you did." he said back, also keeping his voice low, although the glitter in Hokuto's eyes said that she still knew what was going on. "Ich liebe dich, Seishirou-san."  
>Seishirou let out a surprised laugh against his neck, making Subaru shiver. "You <em>were<em> paying attention then." He drew away, but his warmth lingered in each place that Seishirou had been touching him.  
>Hokuto smiled at Seishirou as the vampire cautiously took the other necklace, fingers smoothing over the bird. Hokuto shut the box firmly as Seishirou removed the necklace entirely; preventing him from giving up on trying.<br>The chain slipped around his neck, gently clinking as it slid down to rest. Seishirou looked at him for one long moment, and then Subaru was being pulled into his arms, trapped there without complaint.  
>Seishirou's mouth was hot and desperate on his own, and Subaru melted into the embrace, kissing him back as he gave comfort and love with each motion of their mouths. Seishirou's eyes were closed, the white of his false eye temporarily dimmed by black eyelashes.<br>Hokuto's chuckle drew them away, and Subaru blushed. Seishirou had no such reactions. "No, don't stop." she flapped a hand at them. "If that's what you two want to do, then that's fine."  
>Seishirou snorted in amusement, and held Subaru a little tighter. If he had been concerned about it, it would have been the point where he'd told Seishirou that he couldn't breathe.<br>She looked at them tenderly, holding the box just like her smile. "No matter what anyone says, you two will always be my precious sons. No matter what sins you have committed or what flaws you have, you will always be my family."  
>Then she stepped forwards and embraced them both, wrapping them up in her arms like they were still small enough for her to sweep them away from the floor and anything that scared them. Although he never let go of his Seishirou, he did return it, albeit somewhat awkwardly, with only one free arm and being crushed by them both. Seishirou didn't return the affectionate action, that was probably asking too much of him, but he didn't push her away, and that said volumes as to how much her actions had endeared her to him.<br>She let go of them, and her eyes were over bright, but there was nothing in her smile that betrayed what was inside. "I'm going to go find your brothers, you two can come to dinner when you're ready."  
>And then she excused herself from her own rooms with surprising haste and a whirling of skirts.<br>They were left in the silence of her rooms, alone. Subaru sighed and relaxed back into Seishirou's touch, sinking into his eternal warmth. Seishirou clutched him tightly, and the chains of their necklaces caught on one another, clinking in either distress or joy.  
>"Ich liebe dich." Seishirou whispered back to him, and Subaru smiled.<p>

-A/N- Hello Again! as you can see, this chapter DOUBLED our word count again, so we are so SO sorry for the giant delay! At first, this was giant, so we cut it in half, and it was still too big, so we cut it in half again. XD WOW. our biggest story ever. it's amazing! oh, and can you guess was Seishirou said? if you can, you c\get a cookie. X) please leave a review and tell us what you liked! oh, and there will be several more chapters, this is like the calm before the hurricane (because that's what it will be, not just a mere storm.)


	6. The Sleep In Your Eyes Is Enough

**Chapter Six; The Sleep In Your eyes Is Enough**

He let them stand there for a time, not wanting to let go of his vampire. The weight of his necklace hung around his neck comfortingly after all the time that he'd been without it, been without the gift that had kept him chasing after shadows and shades of wishes.  
>Subaru let out a quiet sigh, face pressed into his shoulder, but did not let go. "We should probably go to dinner before it gets too late." he said without conviction.<br>"Couldn't we skip it?" he asked, resting his cheek on soft black hair.  
>Subaru shook his head with some difficulty. "The amount of trouble that not showing up will cause is more than I want to draw to us."<br>Seishirou sighed, but released him, slightly. "I take it that there are vampires who would feel slighted if you didn't show up?"  
>Subaru gave him a very sad look. "There is a vampire who would be slighted no matter what, but I can't just bow out."<br>He did not agree with this attitude, but seeing the dark resignation in Subaru's eyes, didn't argue the point. Instead, he simply made sure that he didn't let go of Subaru's hand when he let go of their embrace.  
>The soft smile that Subaru gave him made it worth it, and they left the sanctuary of Hokuto's rooms.<br>The walk down the hallway was far too short, even walking as slowly as Subaru would let them, and the sound of laughter and constant chatter filled his ears in no time.  
>The dining room was significantly louder than both of the times that they had been there before; and despite the vanishing sun, seemed to be brighter. Maybe it was the fact that the torches were lit on the walls, it seemed more likely that the light just seemed to reflect more warmly off of everything when there was laughter.<br>When they got in, Subaru immediately went towards the head of the table, where he saw that no one sat in the highest seat, and that Hokuto was right next to it, across from a woman with a sour look to go with her enormous age; she reminded him rather of a shriveled fruit that had refused to give up on life just yet.  
>Subaru took him to sit by Hokuto, or rather, where Subaru was in between the two of them with one other empty chair. Hokuto ceased her dark look competition with the woman across from her to smile at the both of them. "Glad to see you've decided to join us!" she said with a grin, "Kyou-chan's off getting Sakura and Kamui, and Fuuma-chan's been invited too."<br>The sniff that the old woman let out was summarily ignored by all three of them. Hokuto gave a thankful smile to the woman who placed her dinner down on her plate; and if that were a normal animal, he'd be absolutely stunned. It was some sort of mammal if one went by the body, but it had eight curled legs like a dead spider, and two rows of four eyes each that were glassy in death.  
>It smelled interesting, but the look was almost enough to put him off of the one placed down in front of him.<br>The woman let out a sigh of sheer annoyance, not even looking at the blank-eyed woman who gave her a spider thing, and gave Hokuto another dark glare. "It would be nice if your _other_ children would at least show the courtesy to arrive at dinner on time. But I shouldn't expect too much out of them."  
>Hokuto rolled her eyes dramatically, and ignored her with devious intent. "Don't listen to Madame Magami, Sei-chick." she said with the tone of the confidential and the volume of one who seeks to aggravate others. "She's just a noisy old bitch who's never liked any of us because we aren't bigoted race purists like her."<br>The woman made an offended sound, but he didn't see any need to look at her. "Magami, like Subaru-kun?"  
>Hokuto grinned. "Yes." Her knife cut through the belly of the beast in front of her with one smooth motion, spilling out a tirade of cooked plants, other meat and what reeked of an enormous amount of spices lacking sugar. "There's always a bad egg to every family, and she's the one for the Magami. She's also older than dirt, and not as nice."<br>Seishirou resisted the urge to laugh at the comment, and only because he could think of someone _else_ who fit that last description. "I feel sorry for you, to have to put up with her."  
>Hokuto shrugged, and speared something purple and meatlike in her food. "I knew what I was getting into when I accepted Tohru's proposal."<br>Madame Magami gave Subaru a smile that was only barely less dangerous than the knife she held in withered fingers. "Subaru-san, it is so nice to have you home again. How were your _travels_?" she asked, putting a nasty spin on the last word.  
>Kakyou and Sakura entered the room at that point, and walked over to the table. Sakura took the space next to her mother, and Seishirou had the sneaking suspicion it was because the woman across from them had a bad habit of saying nasty things to her without Hokuto able to defend her. As energetic as Sakura was, he wasn't sure that she really had the play of language that one would need to win a battle against this shriveled vampire quite down yet.<br>Kakyou sat down on his other side without a word, merely a gentle presence that still radiated a quiet strength.  
>"Kakyou-san." Subaru began, looking down at his food, "Did you find our brothers as well?"<br>The man smiled at him, sliding the sleeves of his robe up to rest on his forearms where they wouldn't get lost in his food. "They are on their way. Sakura-san and I had to wake them."  
>Seishirou snorted. How so very like the both of them to actually sleep past the beginning of what was turning out to be such a political dinner.<br>The sudden sound of running footstep interrupted all other conversations as Kamui and Fuuma rushed into the room, seeming to be struggling with getting themselves tidied up. Subaru looked up at them from his plate and smiled nervously. "There you are." he said with both relief and trepidation.  
>Kamui shrugged and pulled the dark purple coat on his shoulders out of the wrinkles it had bunched itself into. "I told him it was a bad idea." he told his twin as he walked past him, to sit across from Seishirou with a dramatic sigh. "If we'd been here earlier, we might not have to sit next to her." he said without bothering to be nice to the glowering woman.<br>She huffed in anger as Fuuma circumnavigated the table, sitting down in the empty space on Kamui's side away from the woman with fear that was so obvious he smelled of it.  
>Kamui gave her a very flat look. "Bitch now and quickly please, I want to eat." he told her with no respect. Seishirou smiled at the arrogance in his tone, and the utter lack of respect.<br>She didn't seem to find it so amusing. "How dare you be late on such an occasion, you obstreperous child?" she screeched in a voice not meant for screeching anymore.  
>Kamui grinned at her, and he could easily see Hokuto's influence on him. "Well I think I was late because I overslept. I didn't actually <em>miss<em> it, although considering your kind greeting, I think I might have preferred that."  
>She hissed, but made an effort to calm herself. "No matter. I'll deal with <em>you<em> later," she said in a bitter tone and slit open the torso of her food with one sharp motion. The meat seemed to wither at the foul look she gave it.  
>Kamui smirked at his temporary victory. Then he looked down at his plate, and that smirk vanished. "Oh <em>great<em>." he said in a grumpy tone. "I would have skipped if I'd known that we were going to eat this." Seishirou watched in all too much interest for their tastes as Fuuma brushed their arms together in the action of reaching for the only knife, and their eyes met; Kamui smiled at him for a moment, and then picked up his knife with a sigh.  
>The conversation picked up from then, increasing in volume as the rest of the clan began to relax and try to enjoy the meal, probably hoping that the head of the table wouldn't explode into nasty arguing again. He could see the girl that Subaru and he had met earlier engaged in a discussion with the ruby-eyed Nakuru, seemingly not put off at all by her attitude. And next to him, Kakyou talked in soft tones with a girl with long white hair falling to pool around her chair, her light eyes giving away no more than their conversation.<br>Kamui cut open the stomach of the meat in front of him, releasing the smell of too many herbs, and then looked at Fuuma. Not feeling particularly eager to attempt eating his own food, Seishirou decided to watch the two in front of him. Fuuma had made a face that he hadn't seen in _years_ and was staring down at his food. "How can you eat it?" he asked Kamui as the vampire swallowed his first bite of strange food.  
>Kamui gave him a dry look. "By opening my mouth, putting the food in, and chewing and swallowing. We don't eat food any differently than you do."<br>Sakura giggled slightly, as Fuuma returned to staring at the meat with blatant horror. "You use the knife and the fork farthest from your plate to open it up." she whispered to him kindly.  
>Giving her an awkward smile, Fuuma thanked her, and then trying to hide the fact that he just really didn't want to eat the thing on his plate, picked up the fork, and pressed the tip of the knife to its neck without actually doing anything. His expression said that he'd rather eat any of Seishirou's failed attempts at cooking than what was in front of him.<br>Kamui chuckled, swallowing what he had in his mouth, and leaned in closer to Fuuma with a grin. "Just don't look down while you eat," he said, "It tastes better than it looks."  
>Fuuma looked at him, and then Seishirou couldn't help but chuckle himself, as Fuuma looked down again and winced.<br>"Fuuma." he said with amusement, "I'm sure it tastes better than my cooking."  
>"Many things taste better than your cooking," Fuuma said with black humor, "That doesn't mean that I'm going to eat them." He reached for the glass of dark red liquid in front of him, and started to bring it to his lips until Kamui placed a slender hand over the top of it.<br>He looked over at Kamui, who was staring at him with a knowing scowl, and shook his head. Then he leaned in towards Fuuma, to whisper in his ear. He didn't hear what Kamui said, but by the interesting look on Fuuma's face, he could guess.  
>Fuuma swallowed awkwardly, and placed the glass back on the table. Seishirou almost felt sorry for him, for so many bad things happening at the same time.<br>Probably at Hokuto's command, Sakura had removed herself for the table at some point in time, and just then came back with another glass held delicately in her hands. Carefully sitting down, she handed the cup over to Kamui, who immediately passed it to Fuuma. Seishirou could smell the faint scent of water, and realized that Hokuto had probably recognized the problem before any of them, if Sakura had to sneak away to get any water.  
>Fuuma gave the girl a grateful smile. "Thank you, your highness." he said without a trace of irony in his voice, bowing his head slightly.<br>She smiled back at him, the beginnings of a blush staining her face.  
>The clinking of silver wear as it was set back on wood with an emphatic sound drew Seishirou's attention away from his brother's food problems, to look at the sneering little elderly woman in front of him. Clearly the course of the meal had not calmed whatever problem she had, and she was ignoring Hokuto's glare like she was a master of it. "I really don't see the purpose in granting a human any opportunity to sit at this table." she began, the tone of her voice grating on his ears. "Such a mistake will lead to even shadowstalkers feasting themselves on our food, and then where would our power be?"<br>Now Nakuru, even as far down the table as she was, shot the woman a dark look, and gained a scraping of points for tolerability for that. Still not enough to redeem herself.  
>Madame Magami delicately wiped the invisible traces of any food from her mouth and continued on. "And it is <em>invited<em> to our table by a child who failed to show hallowed blood, being tainted by the Sumeragi as he is."  
><em>She<em>, on the other hand, was rapidly losing any chance of being anything less than pond scum in his eyes. In fact, there were whole festering _demons_ that he would treat with more respect than her.  
>Subaru set down his own fork with almost no sound at all. "Grandmother, I must please ask you to talk with respect at the table. Although I can understand that you are not pleased with my choice, there is no need to discuss it in such a way."<br>She looked at him with black eyes, and then turned her head away. "Subaru-san, as you are still young, I am inclined to give you a slight chance to prove your heritage, and at least not blacken this table with incorrect opinions."  
>He almost snapped at the woman, but the presence of Subaru's hand on his thigh prevented him. A quick look at his partner, and he saw the almost invisible tensing in his jaw, how he was restraining himself from saying anything less polite.<br>If she was bitter enough to make _Subaru_ angry, then he'd wait for the inevitable end of her.  
>He knew exactly what his vampire could do in the height of cold fury.<br>Kamui stabbed his knife into his dinner so that the blade scraped on the plate with a rather jarring sound. The rest of the table fell silent. "Shut your mouth, and stop talking shit." he ordered. "Just because you're a Magami doesn't mean that you get any leave to talk trash in pretty words. Subaru can do everything better than you anyway, and you're just way too behind on anything to pay attention to what he says."  
>Subaru winced slightly, and his hand rested heavier. The other one gripped the armrest of the chair.<br>The woman sneered at him. "Clearly the taint of imperfect blood shows itself in ways other than not having the power of the gods." she sneered, her eyes twisting devilishly. "I always knew that Tohru made a mistake when he chose that woman as his wife."  
>He was almost surprised that Hokuto hadn't killed her yet, certainly the look that she sent her was nasty enough to put Setsuka in her child-loathing rages to utter shame. Subaru said nothing to her, but the soft rumble from his throat put Seishirou in mind of a dragon preparing to burn someone alive.<br>Sakura, surprisingly enough, was the one who responded to that latest taunt. "Don't talk about Mom or Kamui that way! You aren't allowed to." Hokuto putting a hand on her shoulder was probably enough to prevent the little vampire from continuing to say things that might get her in trouble. That didn't stop the girl from glaring at the imp of a woman with sharp green eyes.  
>She ignored Sakura entirely. "Don't even think of getting sharp with me, young man. Since when do you address your master in such a manner? And even if you <em>are<em> nothing but a Sumeragi, I'm still head." She said with cool cruelty, sliding her plate forward with wrinkled hands to indicate that she had eaten her fill.  
>Kamui growled again, lower and more acidic than before, but kept his proud position. "I belong to no one, and answer to who I chose." he hissed, baring his fangs at her in defiance of anything that she might say to him. Strange as it was, but Kamui's vitriol being targeted at someone other than him was actually slightly endearing, to see such a sharp tongue used on someone who deserved it.<br>Madame Magami crossed her fingers and rested them in her lap in something that would have been demure were it not for the nasty smirk on her face. Madame Magami crossed her fingers and rested them in her lap in something that would have been demure were it not for the nasty smirk on her face."Is that so?" she intoned, "I don't see it that way, in fact, it seems that you have allowed yourself to be influenced greatly by the blooming affections of a _human_," she said with dark pleasure. "It is not fitting that a Magami heir, even if he does not show the gifts as he should, should associate himself with such things as layabouts from another world."  
>He wouldn't have minded at all if Kamui leaped up now and buried his claws in her lying mouth until she drowned in her own blood, but Subaru's slight throat clearing sound interrupted that action. "Grandmother, I would greatly prefer it if you did not speak with such disrespect to my brother." he said in a tone so level that it had to be killing him to keep it that way. In the green of his eyes, he could see the coils of anger slipping about like a pair of snaking dragons. "Do not forget who the rule of this family passed to when Father died."<br>She scoffed at him, waving her hand in a languid manner; she was not taking him seriously, and that was more than enough of a transgression to earn her a certain death. "You are not of age, and I have experience with ruling this family as it should be. It is only a tragedy that you have fallen so far from the Progenitor that you would even think of offering mercy to a lowly human."  
>As Subaru's nails bit into his thigh, Seishirou reached down to rest his hand on Subaru's, trying to offer him some sort of support to win this putrid fight.<br>She did not miss the action at all. "And this human that you fall so weakly for, what hold has he on you? He's more tainted than that brother of yours. What on earth possessed you to change such a failure of even a human?" She said with a grotesque satisfaction.  
>The wood creaked alarmingly under Subaru's hand, and he could see the fine lines of tendons rising up under whitened skin. "<em>Grandmother<em>, I warn you now and I warn you once. As it has always been, I will not tolerate you speaking in such a way about those whom I love. If you continue to do so, for any reason, I will drown you in your own flowers before you can even attempt to apologies. Now if you will _excuse_ me."  
>Somehow, when he stood up from the table, he took all the power and threat of Madame Magami with him, leaving her a frail woman sitting on a chair looking ashen. Seishirou kept his fingers laced in Subaru's, preventing the vampire from leaving him behind.<br>As he stood up to follow Subaru out, the elderly vampire appeared to regain some of her bitter strength, or at least enough vitriol to keep spitting bile at him. "How _dare_ you talk to me in such a way?" she snapped, face still pale. "I suspected that _that_ woman had tainted you far too much to listen to reason, but I still hoped you might grow up to show some sense!"  
>Subaru turned around despite Seishirou's feeling that it was a <em>very bad idea<em> to continue to interact with her. "Continue to talk like that, and I will show you why _I_ am heir to the Progenitor, and you are not."  
>Again, she whitened, this time to a shade paler than chalk, and shut her mouth. It may have also been that she caught sight of the lovely lily that he'd left gilding the arm of the chair; slender vine wrapped around the wood in a chokehold.<br>It was entirely childish, entirely beneath him, but Seishirou really couldn't resist the temptation. As Subaru stormed out of the room, he lifted a very polite finger to the woman with a sardonic grin.  
>The hall was utterly silent after Subaru and Seishirou's departure, and Fuuma was rather afraid to move for fear of inciting a rampage. The woman sitting only three chairs away from him was white with fury, and from the way that her eyes were fixed on Subaru's chair, there was something about it that was terrifying her. But he couldn't see it over Subaru's untouched food.<br>The silence was broken by Hokuto, breaking into almost hysterical laughter. "Well done Madame Magami, _well done_! You chased my sons out of dinner by being such a rotten utter _bitch_. _Well done_." she congratulated the woman with all the sarcasm she could put in her voice. Next to her, Sakura cringed.  
>The old woman flinched, and then returned her glare. "That abomination of a changeling should not associate with a Magami, and certainly not with the only heir we have left. If your son knew what was best for him-"<br>Hokuto interrupted her by slamming her hands on the table, making each and every bracelet on her arm jingle. "He _does_ know what's best for him; his Seishirou. And if you weren't so _blind_, you'd see it!  
>Hokuto's laughter, and subsequent yelling seemed to be the breaking of the ice, and many of the vampires inexplicably stood up to leave, regardless of their previous actions. Fuuma watched Nakuru do her weird blurring thing from her seat to the door, and then blur away again.<br>Kamui grabbed his hand. "Do not go anywhere without me." the vampire hissed, eyes slitted and golden with anger. "I don't know what anyone who actually listens to her is going to do."  
>Fuuma nodded tersely, and tried not to flinch at the nasty look that the girl from earlier gave him, the coil of cable snaking up her arm to look her in the eye without eyes of its own.<br>Kakyou leaned over from across the table, heedless of the fact that he dragged one of the light blue sleeves of his robe through his dinner. "Kamui-san, get him outside."  
>Kamui didn't protest the command, or the honorific, but pulled Fuuma out of his chair so that the wood scraped alarmingly on stone. "Move." the vampire ordered him, and Fuuma practically ran to keep up with him.<br>As they passed Subaru's chair, he saw a pure white lily growing into the wood, vine in a stranglehold around the arm.  
>A sinking feeling in his stomach told him that he really should know what clan Subaru was after all of this, but from what he knew of them, it didn't match up with the gentle vampire that he knew.<br>Tonight's display of temper didn't match up either though.  
>Despite his relative weariness from the stairs, it seemed to not take so much time to get down those seven flights of stairs. Maybe it was a rush of adrenaline, maybe it was just that when Kamui was holding onto him, distance didn't matter so much.<br>Kamui stormed out of the castle, towing Fuuma behind him like a particularly obedient dog, and brushing past the blank-eyed guards that stood watch by the doors. The vampire was making harsh breathing sounds that were less from exertion, and more from being as pissed off as hell.  
>When they made it into the garden, he let go of Fuuma's hand abruptly and turned straight around to slam his foot into the wall. "I cannot <em>believe<em> her!" he exploded, and kicked the wall again for good measure. Something cracked, and he didn't really want to know what it was, the wall or Kamui's leg. "That spoiled, infested, self-centered _bitch_." he continued to yell as he stalked through the garden.  
>Fuuma followed him, unwilling to be left behind in the dark. "Kamui, maybe we should just calm down and take a break," he said, trying not to trip on the stones that seemed to appear in his path. "She didn't actually manage to do much, did she?"<br>Kamui glared at him, the tips of his hair silvered by the rising moon, and then turned away. "She's not like Magami are supposed to be, she doesn't use her gift at all, rants about how we're all 'tainted' because we try to find a way to use it that doesn't involve killing everyone in sight, and is from a day long gone by. So's the Progenitor, but only Mother and Subaru have to put up with him, he's even _worse_! I don't get how they can talk to him without murdering him a thousand times over!" he yelled, but Fuuma got the feeling that it wasn't so much needing to yell at him as much as needing to yell in general.  
>He did slow his storming rate though, enough that Fuuma could walk next to him without being in danger of flying chips of stone. "But isn't that a better way to respond?" he asked quietly, "Not bending over and committing murder because someone is annoying?"<br>Kamui sighed openly, "I'd happily murder the both of them and not even regret my punishment. It's verbal torture, what they do." he said, and kicked a rock spinning into what he suddenly realized was a pond when it splashed up and disturbed the reflections.  
>Fuuma could feel the chill of the wind hit his skin, sending icy waves down his spine. But Kamui was beginning to settle down a little bit. "Despite what that woman said, and this Progenitor, I wouldn't mind staying here for the rest of my life." he said with a soft smile.<br>Kamui looked up at him in surprise. "But why doesn't she like you?" he asked, regretting it seconds later when a look of pain crossed the vampire's face.  
>Kamui sighed, but actually opened his mouth to speak. "You don't know, and that's why I'm not going to hurt you for it, because you can't know without someone telling you...When we were born, only Mother seemed to know that she was carrying twins...well her and Father. Everyone was expecting a single child, and I was...unexpected. So, according to them, I wasn't supposed to be born. And she resented me for it, and for not at least being a Magami. Just a Sumeragi. She hasn't let go of the idea that I'm a mistake ever since." he sighed, kicking a small pebble that rested a few inches from of his foot. "Mother has always done her best to kick her back down to size, and Father and Subaru can scare her if she goes too far, but they can't do everything."<br>A silence fell between them, and he was scared to break it. So he listened to Kamui's breathing as they continued to walk to the shore of the pond, and then started to go around it.  
>If Subaru was a Magami like everything that he'd heard today pointed to, then what could his gift do?<br>"Kakyou's your stepfather, right, so may I ask what happened to your father?" Fuuma asked at last, when the weight of the silence grew too great, breaking his concentration on the slow lapping of the waves. Kamui looked at him for a split second, and like a broken mirror, he looked hurt and corrupted. His eyes fell away somberly, the curves of his smile long gone. But he forced himself to look back at Fuuma with a bitter hope, and he smiled again.  
>"He died when I was young, younger than I look now." he said with a wry tone to it all, his mouth pulled down into an unhappy frown.<br>Fuuma swallowed at that, turning away to look at the shore of the pond, the light of the rising moon turning the faint waves silver. The gravel they walked on cracked and crunched together, reminding him of bones clattering together, while somehow Kamui didn't seem to make any sound at all.  
>"My father was a great man." the vampire continued, looking beyond the garden to distant memories. "He always looked after me when Mother couldn't, and even when she could, he'd come and sweep me up and play with me, and he taught me many things."<br>Their hands brushed together as they walked, and Fuuma noticed how cold that Kamui seemed to feel. When the instinct rose over him again, he gave into it, taking Kamui's hand gently in his own.  
>Kamui said nothing of it, but held on, and something in his chest grew warm. "But when he went off world to try and find out why vampires who went to a certain world vanished entirely, there was nothing for a month...and then just his necklace came back." he let out a sharp breath. "And Subaru left just as suddenly, and I didn't have anyone left to be with. Mother did her best, but when Father died, she had to take care of both his duties and her own." He sighed, and lifted violet eyes to the moon. "I didn't have anyone to take care of until Sakura was born."<br>A long moment of silence passed between them, before Fuuma inhaled deeply, and looked over at him. "Were you lonely?"  
>Kamui looked at him for a moment, his eyes startled and open, but then turned them to the ground. "I'd rather not talk about it." He said, as if he was shying away from dark memories.<br>Fuuma said nothing, respecting the vampire's wish. He knew probably better than anyone, what things that it was just too painful to dredge up.  
>He looked to the shore as they walked on slowly, their fingers laced together, and he thought back to his mother for some reason.<br>She had been a beautiful woman, with long black, sleek hair like a pampered horse's mane that fell to the floor when she stood. With her lips always painted a dark ruby, like blood, or rich wine, and skin as pale as alabaster, she was rather like the tale of the fairest child, ebony, ivory and crimson in one painfully beautiful form. Her eyes were a glossy deep amber, like his brother's, and they captivated him in an horribly hypnotizing way. They had both known her as Setsuka, and if beauty was kindness, then she was uglier than sin.  
>Smiling from the sofa where she had arranged herself, she looked like a cat sprawling gracefully. "You really are useless." she purred to him, voice almost careless, but just enough not that way to show that she had all of her attention placed on him. Her hair was strewn across the cushions like spiderwebs of blood, and it shone in the golden glow of sunset. He tried to pay no mind to her as he continued to wash dishes, focusing as much as he was on not dropping them. "I really do hate you, Fuuma, I never needed a second child."<br>He looked at her for a split second, and then back at the soapy water, trying not to show her how much that had hurt him.  
>Moving lazily like the dust motes that swirled through the air, she had cast off a layer of her kimonos, the dark fabric falling away underneath her to leave her only in a nearly sheer white yukata. The heat of the summery day had settled in well before, and despite the setting sun, only seemed to increase.<br>"Okaa-san, would you like me to turn on the fan?" he asked, attempting to change the subject. She looked at him and smiled with a cruel edge.  
>"Why <em>yes<em>, that _would_ be a great help to me, my dear Fuuma." he could hear the joyful sarcasm in her voice as he wiped off his hands on a dishtowel, and then began to move to the light switch. When she gave him a hard look, he stopped.  
>She wanted him to try and use his little scraps of magic to do the task. He bit his lip and tried not to show his frustration. Slowly, he reached out to the wisps of power that floated in his veins, and tried.<br>Like the flexing of muscle, he could feel the way that it tried to respond to his call, tried to do his bidding, but switch only sunk a little before he had to let up. A second, and a third try left him with no more success.  
>He let out a depressed sigh, walking over to it and flipping it up manually. He heard her laugh, a dark and mocking sound as he walked back over to the sink, letting the soapy water swirl around and down the sink.<br>"Your powers aren't even developed yet. How cute." She mused, turning around on the couch and arching her back until the upper half of her body bent like a swan's neck. "And how sad. Your brother could levitate me entirely by the time he was your age."  
>He took the dish towel that seemed bone dry in comparison to the soapy water, and picking up the first plate in the line of them, began to wipe it off until it too, was dry.<br>"It is amusing to watch you fail at following him, failing to be useful at all." she said with vindictive pleasure. "If nothing else, that would be a reason to exist, to amuse me by your failures."  
>He almost dropped the plate he held in his hands, and held onto it all the more desperately for that. He put it away, trying not to let the ceramic clink against itself, she hated that sound.<br>Tugging at the front of his school uniform, he tried to get a little of the stiflingly hot air out of his clothes, unwilling to remove even the hottest part of the uniform around her. Seishirou was staying late for some reason, he _had_ offered to find a way for Fuuma to wait inside the building for him, but in a moment of foolish pride, he had opted to try and defend himself against his mother. Leaning against the counter, he tried not to look at her as she rolled over again in a cat-like manner, arching her back and letting the yukata slide off of one pale leg.  
>When she sat up a moment later, she gave him a smile that made him shiver in fear, and twitched one finger at him in a beckoning action. He obeyed silently, one foot in front of the other as he fought to keep from running away, he knew exactly what she'd do to him for such a thing; and came to a stop in front of her.<br>She smiled up at him with kindness, yet it did nothing to mask the hatred in her eyes. "Come closer, my child." she said sweetly, looking up at him with red lips parted. He swallowed the lump in his throat and fought down the urge to whimper.  
>The fairy tale had always been a lie; fair Snow White and the vain Evil Queen were the same all along.<br>He stood there, hoping desperately that Seishirou would come home now, that he could run away and hide from this bitter reality.  
>She reached up and slid her hand up the tie of his uniform, before pulling it tight enough that it suddenly became very hard to breathe. He let out a choked whimper, but remained where he was, unable to break away.<br>She laughed softly and cruelly, her red lips seeming to glitter in sync with the birds chirping outside in the heat. He only didn't cry out by the force of not doing so, if he screamed, she'd hurt him; probably worse than last time, too. She might even break his arm, and find a way to make him lie to Seishirou about it.  
>Then she slid her other hand up his leg, resting it on his thigh, and moving the hand on his tie up to his throat, she pulled him down farther, her tongue darting out to run a trail of saliva along his cheek, and laughed again, high and cold.<br>He fought back a cry, but the unvoiced sounds began to run down his face in trails of tears.  
>"Please, <em>please<em> Okaa-san, not again!" he begged, trying to pull away, but she held him in place, her hands burning him like ice.  
>Then, the sound of the door opening on determinedly rusty hinges resonated from the entry hall, and she froze, the only movement being her smile melting away.<br>Fuuma took the opportunity to practically throw himself away from her, pulling his tie looser and wiping away the tears carelessly.  
>Seishirou walked in, bored saunter well practiced, and threw his jacket onto the sofa next to her, "Far too damned hot to be wearing that thing." he explained for his greeting.<br>"Tadaima, Seishirou-chan." she purred, seeming completely unaffected at almost being caught hurting him. "We've been waiting for you all afternoon. How was school?" she asked, picking at her long nails idly. "I hope that no one saw the need to hold you for anything...unsavory."  
>Seishirou sunk into the chair, looking bored. "It was fine, nothing happened that I didn't want it to, thank you Mother." he said, almost as dully as her.<br>The dark look that she gave him was enough to make his stomach roil with all the sensations that he didn't want to feel, and he sprinted for the bathroom, bile and terror and tears falling into the toilet as he threw up.  
>He did his best to keep the sound minimal, so that Seishirou wouldn't have a reason to worry. A fight between those two was the last thing that he needed right now.<br>All he wanted was for her to _leave him alone_.  
>He sniffed slightly and pressed the heel of one hand against his eye, trying to keep the tears from falling, but to no avail. Biting down on his sleeve to keep a sound from escaping, he sobbed silently on the bathroom floor, hoping that it would end soon. From outside the room, a thump sounded, and he assumed that Seishirou had dropped something.<br>But as always, the tears continued to fall.  
>Phantom pain shot through his chest, and he flinched away from the waves of memory, trying not to give in to a ghost.<br>A gentle squeezing of his hand rocked him out of that tide, pulling him out of the darkness again. Looking at the connection, he saw that Kamui hadn't let go, was still there. Then he looked up, and saw that violet eyes wide with worry. "Are you alright?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed in a way that said that he wouldn't accept anything that even felt like a lie.  
>So he didn't. "Now I am, but only because you are here." he said with a smile, and watched the vampire. "I'm not afraid anymore."<br>Kamui blinked at him, twice, and then to his complete surprise, he abruptly dipped his head down, and turned his face away. "Kamui?"  
>"I'm <em>fine<em>." the vampire bit out, but he sounded rather like he was trying to not say something otherwise.  
>The slow tide of red spreading up the back of his neck was an enormous clue to what Kamui was suffering, and Fuuma couldn't help but grin at him. "Are you blushing?" he asked with amusement.<br>"N-no!" Kamui barked out, and Fuuma stifled a laugh. "Why would I do something like blush? Even if you did say something nice, I'm not like Subaru, I'm not going to blush."  
>"But I can see that you are." he told Kamui with way more amusement than the situation probably warranted, and grinned when Kamui squeezed his hand rather painfully. "Your neck is all red."<br>Kamui turned around, and although he was definitely blushing, it didn't stop him from glaring at Fuuma with all of his might. He made a growling sound in his throat. "Better start running Fuuma, because I'm going to get you."  
>In retrospect, chase games usually worked better when the parties involved weren't clinging to each other, Subaru's fist had smashed into the stone of his room hard enough that a violent crack rang from the contact, and by the way that he shook out his hand and chips of rock fell to the ground, causalities had been suffered on both sides.<br>Seishirou stood against the wall, watching Subaru attempt to not destroy anything beyond repair, turning about and punching walls whenever the urge to smash one of his pretty vases or shred the curtains down appeared to try and take over him.  
>He hadn't seen his partner this pissed off in a very long time. And the last time he'd been angry enough to break something...<br>"Are you going to kill her?" he asked, keeping his tone carefully mellow, despite the fact that seeing the tumbling flickers of green to gold to green was just the _slightest_ bit unnerving. "I wouldn't care if you did."  
>Subaru spun around and smacked his fist open-palmed into the wall. A single crushed tiny starflower fell to the floor. He let out a sharp breath, and then turned back, looking slightly calmer, although his eyes still flashed. "No, I'm not going to kill her for this." he said with a shaking voice. "But I don't understand how she can look at all of you and- and say such horrid things."<br>Seishirou shrugged. "I've known she's existed for all of half an hour and I can tell you now that she is a feckless, shriveled up excuse for a racist prune."  
>Subaru let out a bark of a laugh that was far too much like him when angry for other reasons, and clenched his hands tight. "I shouldn't agree with you as much as I do on that." He tilted his head down, so that his bangs covered his eyes and Seishirou couldn't see them. "I could handle it if she said them to me, but she's not. She's saying them to <em>you<em>. To Kamui and Fuuma and Mother and you and anyone else who doesn't fit her ideas."  
>Seishirou watched as he began to shake, his hands clutched tightly enough together that his nails bit through the skin and left trails of ruby blood to ooze out from between his fingers. Subaru was hurting himself to not hurt anything else.<br>How endearingly foolish of him.  
>Two steps to cross the distance of the floor, his shoes barely making a sound against the stones, and he was able to catch up Subaru's hands, slip his fingers around Subaru's, prying them open until they laced in his to prevent him from escaping. Clotting blood tried to meld their hands together as Seishirou pinned them to the wall. "Do not, and <em>never<em> blame yourself for the actions of others." he said harshly, pressing his forehead against Subaru's slightly harder than needed. "I already have enough trouble keeping you from killing yourself over the littlest things."  
>Subaru blinked at him, and his hands went slack, no longer tensing enough to try and hurt himself. Sinking against him like a lost child in the face of a dead world, the last comfort he would allow himself, he made a soft despairing sound, trapped against the wall.<br>Seishirou gathered him up, pulling him closer so that no one could ever see the shadows of his self that Subaru bared for him. In the growing night, he could be the hallowed guardian of a broken angel.  
>Subaru shook, little tiny tremors that ran through his whole body, but he did not cry. All he seemed to want was confirmation that it was all right to be angry for a moment, to let the emotion run its course so he could return to serenity.<br>So he let him have it. but Fuuma couldn't find a single reason to let go of Kamui's hand.  
>At last the shaking died down, and Subaru let out a long sigh. "As long as she doesn't try to do anything else, I'll be okay." he said to Seishirou's shoulders. "You can let go if you want."<br>Seishirou slid his thumb in between one of their clasped hands, feeling the drying blood and healed skin underneath. "But I don't."  
>There was a soft laugh, "You won't ever change, will you?" Subaru said with calm affection.<br>"I don't plan on it." he said with a small smile of his own. "Now are you going to stop hurting yourself?"  
>Subaru nodded against his shoulder, soft hair brushing against his neck.<br>Outside the closed door, he could hear the echo of footsteps of someone stomping their way past, too angry to consider the fact that everyone would be able to hear them. "Is there anywhere where we can go where someone else won't walk by?" he asked his armful of vampire.  
>Subaru looked up at him. "To do what?" he asked, green eyes open to most likely whatever suggestion that Seishirou could bring up, even if it involved murdering a certain foolish vampire that could put him in such a state.<br>Which, of course, meant that he had to _come up_ with a reasonable activity that did not involve mass bloodshed, even if the person he was thinking of deserved it. "A bath." he said almost without thinking, and then glanced down.  
>Subaru had a surprising grin on his face, either amusement, or happiness, or both, the former at his expense at least. "Wait a moment," he said, gently pulling away from Seishirou to move to the curtained window.<br>Outside, he caught a glimpse of the first scattering of stars in the deepening sky, but Subaru appeared to be looking for something else, leaning out alarmingly until he made a soft sound and swung himself back in. He gave Seishirou a smile that was less forced than any of the others before. "We should get moving, since we have to make it down the stairs."  
>Seishirou furrowed his brows as he looked outside through the curtain that still remained ajar. "What were you looking for?" he asked, not moving as Subaru opened up the door to the hall.<br>"Are you coming or not?" his partner asked, standing in the light spilling in from the hall, flames dancing over his back and leaving him silhouetted.  
>Seishirou gave the open window one last confused glance, and then followed Subaru, out the door and over to the hall of stairs.<br>They seemed to spiral down endlessly, although they were less occupied than the halls themselves. Subaru didn't even give the long way down a _first_ glance, let alone a second one, but began to trot down the stairs with the ease of much practice. Seishirou followed him with trepidation, looking over the elegantly carved banister more times than was really necessary.  
>Subaru spun around the landing in a swirl of dark green coat, the fabric fluttering out gracefully, and Seishirou gripped onto the polished wood as he did the same. The two vampires on the stairs, a tall woman who wasn't just stacked in height, and a man with scruffy blond hair and a smarmy look about him gave him a less than pleased look, but he was content to ignore them in the process of navigating the stairs. Other than sheer power of habit, he had no clue how Subaru was able to dart down them like a butterfly, each step only on the balls of his feet.<br>He was starting to run out of breath at their sixth door down, but from the amount of stairs left, they didn't have much to go. Subaru reached the bottom first, turning about quickly, and then taking Seishirou's hand in his, and pulling him along as he turned out of the stair room, and then skipped the main hall to go into a second room. "I don't think they've shut my way out yet." He told Seishirou over his shoulder as they avoided a veritable fortress of plush chairs. "Kamui and I used to climb out this window all the time, because we got all kinds of questions if we tried to leave by the front way after sunfall."  
>They left the sitting room and then were in a back hall, the most damning evidence that it wasn't really used being the much smaller amount of lit torches along the path, and when Subaru let go of his hand to go over to a window that had a sill topping out around his shoulder, he found it easy to sink into the shadows.<br>Subaru jumped and lifted himself into the window, crouching there in the dim light of the torches and the starlight from outside. He made a soft sound as he ran his hand over the frames, and another more pleased one as he found what he was searching for.  
>It slid open easily, Subaru guiding it so that the glass that he could just barely make out in the darkness didn't crash on the stone outside. "I had to find the pin." he said unhelpfully as he turned back from setting the window to rest. Then he shifted his balance so that he was crouched in the window and leaning in to beckon Seishirou over, a beautiful little sprite to seduce him away from the light.<br>He walked over without hesitation. "Where are we going?" he asked as Subaru smiled at him.  
>Subaru leaned back, and Seishirou saw the glitter of his necklace fall over to hang outside the window from his neck as he prepared to jump down. "You'll see." he said, and dropped out of Seishirou's sight.<br>He hurriedly climbed up onto the windowsill himself, and saw Subaru just below him, on a drop that wasn't more than four feet. "Will you be able to climb back in the window if you jump down?" Subaru asked in a hushed tone, looking around the surroundings for something or someone.  
>He looked down again, and then up at the frame and saw what 'pin' Subaru had been talking about; a strip of metal that bent down from the inside of the frame, just enough to prevent it from latching. "Easily."<br>He slid out of the window and caught himself easily, standing up without a problem as Subaru shut the window again, and if it weren't for knowing of the metal strip, he would have not thought that it could open again.  
>In the light right before the moonrise, Subaru seemed to be drawn into elongated shapes; graceful and poised like a marble phoenix ready to take flight in a sweep of fiery wings. He held out one white hand from underneath the green cloak stained black in the lack of warm lights.<br>Seishirou took his hand and held on tight, clinging on like a lost child. Subaru smiled and laced their fingers together until he could pretend that he didn't know where he ended and Subaru began, and then began the could see the first rays of moonlight stretching over the long hills that arced gracefully over the land, gilding the trees in a stream of silver so it looked like a glass forest; but he was not given the chance to admire it as Subaru's hand clenched a little tighter around his own, and they walked past it, walking around the large walls of the castle for some unknown destination. "Where _are_ we going Subaru-kun?" he asked as the smaller vampire led them down a staircase carved out of the bedrock, his bare feet making no sound and barely being more prominent than the shadows that lay behind them.  
>Subaru turned radiant green eyes back on him, with a range of emotions that lay between mischievous and shy flickering in the depths. "You said you wanted a bath. So we're going to take a bath."<br>Silvered grass flashed on the edges of the stones, and then they had left the castle walls behind entirely, walking along a path with windows carved from the rock itself so that the beginning moonlight and the stars, faintly brilliant, shimmered off of something inherent in the stones. Seishirou saw a hint of blue glittering at the edges, but they were walking past each window fast enough that he wasn't getting enough time to study the nature of them. "You had a bath in your rooms, didn't you?"  
>Subaru gave him a level look, keeping his pace without having to look where he was going. "There's another one, that's probably more to your tastes." A flash of starlight from outside glittered on the edges of the carved windows as Subaru continued. "And...there's something about it that won't be as spectacular if we don't get there soon."<br>Seishirou allowed himself to continue being towed, easily keeping up with Subaru as they left the windows behind. Although his range of sight wasn't as vibrant as in the day, he could still see the tide of crimson creeping up the back of Subaru's neck as they were plunged completely into darkness, and it drew up the corners of his lips in a smile, the faint hints of Subaru letting go of the things that made him angry was really quite pleasing. "Is it something pretty?"  
>He could barely see the deep expressive green of the vampire's eyes as Subaru again turned back to look at him. "You'll see it very soon." he answered unhelpfully.<br>They turned a last bend, and then Subaru had stopped and released his hand, and there was the slow groaning of stone against stone as he pushed on something until the darkness fell away into a rhythm of reflected starlight.  
>He stepped forwards to look, and although he kept control enough not to show it, he was stunned. He could safely say that this was probably the first thing he'd seen, besides Hokuto, that had been astonishing enough to completely draw his awe away from Subaru.<br>The cavern was large, with elegant looping designs carved into the wall that spiraled about in faint shadows. It was open to the night air, long windows cut out in such a way that someone would have had to grow wings in order to look in, but the sky wasn't blocked at all from sight. Several pools lay in the floor, with ornate stones laid into the edges that glittered in the little light there was. In the shadowed corner, there was the sound of rushing water, and it seemed like there was a stream running down rather like a waterfall  
>It was overwhelmingly ethereal, and Seishirou heard himself say in a tone that was a little too openly awed for his tastes; "This is a <em>bath house<em>?"  
>Subaru's laughter was as soft as ever. "It is really something, isn't it?" He stepped in more, and then into the depths of the remaining shadows, still easily visible "Are you going to come in?"<br>He took three steps in, almost feeling indignant at the vague suggestion that he wouldn't.  
>On the far wall, he could see a wall worn smooth with a thousand years of constant falling water, and the water itself, glittering icily cold. "The pools are kept warm." Subaru informed him from the shadows. There was a sound of shuffling feet, like Subaru trying to decide whether or not his current action was really the best.<br>He knelt before the nearest pool, and extended one hand towards the water. It slid around his fingers like normal water, except there was a glimmer of magic in it to accent the warmth. The stones under his knees were the same as the pool, and seemed to hold a vast history of little bits of magic; carefully stored and locked away in the exact same way every time it was refilled. "Your family magicked the pools?" he asked absently, running his fingers through the flawless pool and destroying his vague reflection.  
>"Not mine directly." Subaru answered, and there was something odd in his tone. "But the clan has had the honor of restoring these pools to an eternal grace through the stones, yes."<br>Seishirou turned, and then stopped as the heavy sound of fabric meeting stone resounded through the otherwise almost silent room. Subaru's coat spilled out from his feet like a tide of blackness, spreading out with the long feathery ends sinking into the starlight. The rest of his clothes were tossed carelessly on top of it, almost uncharacteristically for the shy vampire.  
>A wave of rose rushed over Subaru's cheeks, and he closed naked arms about himself in a gesture of shyness, closing over the chains of his necklace. But he did not drop his gaze, and that was enough. "Sorry..." the other vampire began, the sound barely carrying over the waterfall. "I can't bathe in my clothes."<br>Seishirou did not laugh at the blatantly obvious statement, or the way that it was whispered in a rush. Instead, he simply stared, and was dimly aware that this was doing absolutely nothing to sooth the other in the space.  
>Subaru at last stepped away from the wall, still with his vibrant blush, and past him with methodical footsteps, light enough to not echo in the room. pull him along the path that began to arc out from their feet.<br>There was one faint splash, and then another as Subaru stepped into the pool next to him, the water rising up as he displaced it. There was a pause, and then Subaru smiled faintly. "Aren't you going to get in too?"  
>Seishirou started, and then regained control of himself with a smirk. "In the same pool, Subaru-kun? How forward of you." he purred, to Subaru's cool look.<br>"Well you could sit in one of the other pools, but I don't think that you want to." Subaru said with quiet amusement. "Otherwise you would stop staring at me."  
>Seishirou chuckled slightly as he stood, fingers going to the buttons of his coat. "You do know me well." he told the vampire, who smiled at him before averting his eyes out of a habit of modesty.<br>His coat hit the ground with the same intensity as Subaru's had before, the fabric tumbling away with its own weight pulling it down. Green eyes flashed over him for a second, and then were drawn away forcibly. He discarded his shirt, letting it fall away as well.  
>The necklace that Hokuto had given him; the sword in the center glittering in the moonlight, thunked into the depression of his hips as he slid into the water fully, Subaru blinking in a manner that suggested he'd gotten an unexpected, but not unappreciated eyeful.<br>The water was very warm, almost too much so, but was really very pleasant, and Seishirou exhaled in silent appreciation. There was nothing left in any of the ways that Subaru held his body to suggest that he was still holding onto any anger or resentment from earlier, and a small smile hung about his lips continuously.  
>Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a stream of bluish white light creep over the window's edge, sliding sinuously over to gild the floor in silver light. Seishirou turned to look at it, and Subaru's voice echoed from behind him, a pleased awe filling the single word until it seemed to be the whisper of the water, the rocks, the air itself. "<em>Moonrise<em>."  
>Like the tide itself, rising on the pull of the moon to reshape the oceans to a different splendor, the light crept over the window in the dawning of true night. Sliding across the floor, it touched the first of the pools, and it changed from plain water to a gemstone; brilliantly blue in a way he hadn't been awed by since the first glimpse of the sky after changing.<br>In a silvery wave, the moon itself became fully visible through the windows, glittering in full radiance. He followed the path of its light, and his gaze alighted on Subaru, watching him with an ethereal smile that brightened his eyes until they rivaled the moon.  
>The rays of the moon climbed up and over them both, and the effect of it left Subaru's hair touched with the edges of grey, and smoothed any flaws from his face. Aged his ageless eyes and gentled the curves of weariness around them. Offered him an immortality longer than the lifespan of a vampire, and showed how he might be as only a human.<br>Gave him something eternally evanescent.  
>Slowly, the bitter light of the moon lost its newfound radiance, dulling down to something more manageable, and yet the strange effect it had on Subaru lingered. At least until the vampire blushed heavily and attempted to hide his face in his knees, making the water ripple around them in sparkling waves.<br>"_Subaru-kun_." He whispered harshly, and Subaru's eyes flashed up to him as Seishirou slid long fingers under his chin, pulling him back from his bout of shyness.  
>Something infinitely caring filled green eyes, and he <em>thought<em> he was beginning to understand all the connotations of 'in love', as he smiled at his vampire.  
>To move past the tiniest space between them was easier and more right than falling asleep, and the flutter of Subaru's eyelashes as he reached up to twine his fingers in Seishirou's hair was as light as butterfly wings.<br>Even with much experience and practice, kissing Subaru was still as unexpectedly thrilling as ever, one of the very few things that did not lose their exciting buzz when repeated, and it felt like he could never have enough of that rush.  
>Subaru made a very soft sound in the back of his throat, and clung tighter to him as he moved closer, not wanting to stay separated from his other half.<br>The moonlight spilled across both of them, white against his eye, and cut off the strands of time for just a moment. He was shuddering, barely in control of baser desires, and Subaru's shivers and slit green gaze were speaking of the same thing. As reluctant as he was to not continue on this course, there were certainly more dignified places for consummation than in a bath house.  
>He drew away enough that they were no longer pressed closer than the water, and for a moment he thought the other vampire might follow him; the thoughts were certainly circling in his viridian stare, but he didn't.<br>A long moment passed, quiet and ethereal, but it wasn't awkward or painful. Then Subaru smiled at him, his gentle smile that could brighten even the most shadowed of days. The world softened again, and he smiled back.  
>Subaru looked up at the darkened ceiling, seeming to sink into his thoughts. "Do you like it here?" he asked after a long pause, the ripples of the water around them slowing until they barely marred the moonlit surface.<br>He leaned back in the calm water, looking at the slits of the window. "There are far too many vampires to annoy you here, but it's nice." he said, and got a happy smile back as Subaru pulled his knees up to his chest.  
>Seishirou froze as Subaru seemed to be swallowed up by the silvery light, left glittering and frosted in the pale glow. Behind him, a dim blue light began to emanate from the carved symbols, and suddenly they seemed more like words than uneven decorations.<br>Subaru noted where his gaze had turned, and turned around, the water lapping at his waist as he smiled at the words. "It's our ancient language." he said without needing the question. "Most of us don't speak it anymore because it's rather limited in all the things you can say, but we keep it around." He turned his smile onto Seishirou. "Would you like to hear it?"  
>He gave him a grin of his own. "If you can handle the words."<br>Subaru turned back away as the letters grew brighter as the moon rose, and then opened up his mouth. Not to speak them, but to sing. "Ashryn, suun con lesherare saunfwer." he began, the notes strangely high for his voice, but he handled them easily. "Mesho la malrei aunmyn. Seisa shei con la malrei."  
>He sat and listened as his vampire showed off the language, the liquid syllables falling from his mouth with ease and blending into the richness of the night. "Aeshal saunfwer, un dei sonsei makeshka ashsyn."<br>Subaru looked at him with warm green eyes as the last line of the melody hung in the air between them. "Dei alshansei, on la ryn." Then he turned his face aside with the faint hints of a blush. "It sounds better when it's sung, sorry."  
>"Don't be." he said. "It sounds nice when you sing it."<br>Subaru blushed more violently, but kept smiling. "My Seishirou-san." he said with obvious affection.  
>Seishirou watched his blush fade as he waited for whatever Subaru was going to do next, and then received a playful and sensitive grin.<br>The vampire stood up suddenly, disturbing the water's eerie calmness, and walked over by the tumbling waterfall.  
>Seishirou watched without any shame, although he was rather confused by the action, and watched as Subaru reached into what must have been an icy stream of clear froth to pull out a stone bucket.<br>He could see the faint trembling in Subaru's arms, signaling that it was, in fact, cold, but it meant nothing to either of them in terms of actual trouble. When the vampire turned back around, he had a rather devious grin on his lips, much more like Hokuto's or Kamui's than what he was used to associating with Subaru. "Do you see something you like?" he asked with an overly innocent tone, eyes dipping into the pool he sat in.  
>Seishirou almost had the urge to blush overtake him as he looked down at what Subaru saw, and noted the problem. He pulled his knees to his cheat, <em>hoping<em> that Subaru hadn't seen his reaction, and swallowed at the fact that Subaru's smirk didn't disappear at all.  
>He placed the pail of water on the smooth edges of the stones, kneeling down and running his fingers over the damp and deepened rock, before resting them on Seishirou's shoulder<br>Seishirou easily willed off the temptation to flinch, but obviously some of it snuck through his commands to his body anyway, because Subaru looked at him worriedly, emerald eyes bright with concern. "Are you okay, Seishirou-San?" he asked, all of the concern for what caused it coming out in his voice.  
>Seishirou smiled at him. "I'm fine." he said, and leaned into Subaru's touch. Subaru's eyes were tender, and so were his hands, running along his shoulders in a way that could only be described as worshipful. He welcomed that touch as he wouldn't another, his eyes drifting shut as Subaru slid his arms around to hug him from behind, placing a gentle kiss on the side of his neck. He felt everything in his body relax slowly, slipping into Subaru's arms with his own serenity.<br>He could feel Subaru's smile against his neck as the other vampire shifted to rest a little closer, nose resting in the curve between his shoulder and neck. The gentle tickle of Subaru's breath rushed over his skin, and he suppressed a soft shudder at the action.  
>The soft sound of splashing had him turning his head, and he saw Subaru reaching into the bucket, slender legs extending out behind it. Those legs were moved as Subaru sat up, sliding into the water on either side of Seishirou and barely disturbing the water in the process. Seishirou tilted his head back to look at Subaru, and found the vampire bearing a rather playful grin as the sounds of dripping water echoed from the washcloth he squeezed in his hand.<br>Subaru kissed the top of his head as he brought the cloth over from the bucket, and Seishirou sighed with content as he rested the _very_ soft cloth against his neck.  
>"It's made from unicorn hide." Subaru whispered into his ear, running the fabric down his neck and over the top of his chest, gentle fingers massaging out the bits of tension he hadn't even realized had collected there. Seishirou resisted the urge to purr at the sensation.<br>The vampire ran the cloth over his chest, and then onto his back, still gently working away any remaining lines of stress from his body. "My father used to have a unicorn," he explained as he briefly removed the cloth to dampen it again. "He was a very beautiful unicorn, proud and strong. And when he died, Father took his coat and used it for all sorts of things." The washcloth on his neck was followed by the tender sensation of Subaru's lips pressing against the skin. "He made Mother a coat, and he took the other pieces and made them into household objects, like this." Subaru set aside the cloth and slid his arms around Seishirou's neck almost thoughtfully. "For us, it wasn't the value of a unicorn hide that we kept it, but because it was the last memory we had of him. It's all we have." he said with a strange sense of finality behind the words.  
>"Why is it so unusual to have any, is there a reason not to kill one?" he asked, puzzled.<br>Subaru's hands pressed tighter against his chest for a brief moment, before loosening. "Because to slay something so pure and innocently trusting, it's one of the most irredeemable things you can do." his voice was calmly sad, as he explained it. "They are such gentle creatures, and to slay them for such a callous reason is wrong. Destroying such innocence should never be forgiven." he said with the faintest edge of anger to his voice, the little wave that lurked behind the tsunami. Listening to the danger behind Subaru's gentle tone, his mind automatically leaped to when Subaru had that edge all the time, and Setsuka. The sudden tide of memories swept him up, and he tensed under Subaru's touch as he fought to keep his breathing even.  
>Subaru loosened his grip, undoubtedly because he recognized the reason behind the sudden tension, and abruptly slid around him to climb back into the pool, watching him with intent green eyes. Those eyes that knew everything and that he'd never be able to entirely fool. "Seishirou-san."<br>The smile that he placed on his lips was undeniably fake, but he couldn't make it real."Kamui and Fuuma are well on their way to becoming love sick children, aren't they?" he asked with a lighthearted tone to it all.  
>Subaru's gaze was almost flat, but he kept eye contact solemnly. "Seishirou-san," he began, "I already know, you can't lie to me that easily."<br>Under the weight of that unyielding gaze, he folded, again bringing his knees up in front of his chest. "Fuuma's still afraid. Uncomfortable with intimate touch, shying away when it's someone he doesn't know in his heart that he can trust without condition." he said with a sigh, the bitter memories of youth flickering in his mind for a moment. He thought back to all the times that he had taken the punishment in place of his little brother, unwilling to let him be corrupted at Setsuka's foul hands. When he met Subaru's gaze again though, he met it without question or fear. "Some things don't hurt as much when it's only you and not the one who makes it a little better."  
>Subaru's sad smile understood all. Moving to be right next to Seishirou, he reached up and turned Seishirou's head to face him, resting their foreheads together. "It's best not to dwell on the past, love." he said softly.<br>They stayed that way for quite some time, and then Subaru smiled, a curling of the lips that brought to mind Hokuto right before making some sort of deadly comment designed to send everyone into either gales of mortification or laughter. "Why _Seishirou-san_, you mustn't be so sullen." he purred, pulling back from his partner. "It's rather unhealthy, in retrospect." he smirked in a very uncharacteristic way.  
>All sorts of thoughts as to what Subaru was planning flashed through his mind and then he swallowed.<br>The vampire grabbed the bucket he had placed by the pool earlier and in one fell motion, flung its contents all over him.  
>Seishirou let out a startled cry as he was abruptly drenched, the cold water sending aching chills throughout his body. Subaru had managed to scramble out of the water, refilling the pail, and waiting for Seishirou's next move.<br>Seishirou stared at him as drops of icy water slid out of his hair and over his face, completely dumbfounded as he tried to process the fact that _Subaru_ had just thrown _ice water_ all over him.  
>Subaru's quick breaths slowed and stopped, and his face grew puzzled as Seishirou made no move.<br>Then he began to laugh, the kind that started in his stomach and rose through his body. Subaru stood there, looking completely stunned, and he couldn't stop laughing. The entire thing had been so unexpected, so out of the blue that it just was _funny_.  
>When he managed to get control over his laughter, he pulled himself out of the pool, grinning wildly, and snatched the bucket from Subaru's slackened hands. "You look so Stunned, Subaru-kun." he said with a laugh. "It's rather unhealthy, in restrospect." he retorted with malevolent glee before dumping the water over Subaru's head in playful revenge.<br>Subaru squeaked and began to laugh as the water drenched him the rest of the way, and then he splashed Seishirou with water from the waterfall, freezing him even more.  
>Seishirou made a face, and attempted to sweep the bucket through the water to splash Subaru again, but the smaller vampire darted away from the spray of water, leaving prints of water behind him as a testament to where he'd been.<br>Seishirou dropped the bucket on the stones, letting it roll off without a care, and chased after Subaru and his radiant laughter.  
>It wasn't that hard to catch him, despite the relative lack of height difference, since Subaru wasn't really trying to get away, and he was able to wrap Subaru up in his arms from behind. Subaru quaked with stifled giggles, but made no attempt to get away, only turning around to hug Seishirou in return.<br>They simply stood there, holding each other, and he sighed with content, not needing anything else in the world to be happy.  
>As the night air encircled them in blankets of silence, the combination of cold water and lack of protective clothing started to make him shiver, and there was no way to conceal that from Subaru. "Not to ruin the moment, but I'm <em>freezing<em>." he said carelessly, and Subaru chuckled in response.  
>"I suppose we should dry off now," Subaru said without actually moving. Seishirou could understand the reason behind that.<br>Seishirou let go reluctantly, to look over at their discarded clothes by the pool. Then he crossed his arms as he saw the problem. "Your water attack killed the clothes." he complained, and Subaru whipped around to look."  
>"Oops." he said intelligently, blinking his green eyes in dismay. "I didn't mean to."<br>Seishirou shrugged. "I know, but how are we supposed to get back to the castle if our clothes are soaked?"  
>Subaru walked over to his heap, prodding them carefully. "Wear them anyway." he answered without turning around to look. "We can change again in my rooms."<br>Seishirou made a face at his clothes, but didn't argue it. "I hate wearing wet clothes." he said petulantly, as he picked up his shirt and wrung a large amount of the water out of it into the pool with vigor. "So uncomfortable."  
>Subaru did up the buttons on his shirt deftly, clearly having no such objections to wet clothes. "You'll be wearing them as long as it takes for you to get back inside and to my rooms. And then you can actually wear the jacket that Mother made for you."<br>The shirt clung to his skin in a very uncomfortable way, and his hair dripped onto it. "And dry off my hair." he said to the vampire who was watching him without a hint of a blush as Seishirou struggled with his pants. "I'm not going to drip on everything while at a party."  
>Subaru picked up his coat and, instead of putting it back on, rested it over one arm. "I don't think Mother would care that much." he said, and reached out a pale hand towards Seishirou.<br>He took it without hesitation, and smiled.  
>She'd told them to be there before the moon rose to its zenith, and he wasn't going to risk the amount of danger and pain that would follow missing out on that time.<br>Discarding the long purple cloak, Fuuma averting his eyes with strange modesty, Kamui adjusted the white shirt that had crumpled up during the garden walk, and gave himself a cursory look in the mirror.  
>At least she wouldn't immediately start fussing over him and trying to fix his clothes when she first caught a glimpse of him.<br>Fuuma turned his gaze back around as he cleared his throat to inform the man that he had finished doing anything that might offend his sensibilities, still wearing his coat despite the fact that Kamui had told him it was okay to take it off. "Is Hokuto-san going to be alright with you in just your shirt?" he asked, adjusting one of the sleeves with embroidered dragon fire nervously.  
>He shrugged, glad for the lack of the weight of any coat. "The whole point of it is actually us getting to be with each other without formal actions for the first time all day. Even if she does care, she's not going to make me dress like we're going back to dinner."<br>Fuuma looked unconvinced, but let it go. He didn't remove his coat, instead running a hand over the bright dragon on his chest as if to reaffirm that it was actually there. It was strange to see anyone so attached to a piece of clothing, but he didn't know any of the circumstances behind Fuuma's life, and with all of the times that his mother and Subaru had gently tried to ground it into his head that he couldn't judge actions without knowing the reason behind them, he was going to actually listen for once.  
>But probably just this once.<br>Pulling on the shirt one more time, just to try and get it to look a little less wrinkled once again, he turned away from the mirror. Fuuma followed him slowly, a tentative child uncertain if the steps he took were the right ones.  
>Kamui gave him a smile. "The only reason she'd be mad at us is if we actually did something irredeemable, like kill her or something like that. It's fine, come on."<br>Fuuma didn't say anything, but kept walking with him, speeding up enough to keep up.  
>The hallway was almost eerily silent now that everyone else had gone back to their own rooms downstairs, and he relaxed slightly, not quite so concerned about listening for someone in the shadows. It was so quiet, even Fuuma would have heard them before they could do anything.<br>Walking past the dining hall, he could see the silvered hills outside the far window, glimmering under the full moon. The door that they aimed for was just past the hall though, and so he didn't get a chance to see if the river was as silver as the hills.  
>The door slid open as loudly as the owner of the room frequently was, hinges crying out in rusty despair as he pushed it all the way, and walked into the room that already flickered with warm light.<br>Hokuto sprang up from the plush couch with far too much ease for how impractical her shoes were, clattering across the floor to hug him, bracelets chinking peacefully as she linked her arms around him. He returned the hug gratefully, leaning into her touch, and inhaling the smell of wisteria, feathers and something indescribable, but all hers.  
>"Welcome home, Kamui." she whispered to him, arms tightening a little around him, and he smiled, holding onto her a moment longer before releasing him and going straight over to hug Fuuma, who looked completely floored by this action.<br>Kamui leaned against the wall as he watched Fuuma look first stunned, then inexplicably extraordinary happy, eventually returning the hug cautiously, as if he were afraid that she might shatter into shards of glass at his touch.  
>When Hokuto let go of the younger man, Sakura came bounding over to pull him into the room, and Kamui took the opportunity to see who else was there.<br>Kakyou leaned against the couch Hokuto had been sitting on with him, looking laid back and sleepy, in one of his usual ornate dressing gowns that Hokuto loved to sew for him. This one had long deep midnight purple loops spiraling out over a blue so dark it was almost black, and a sliver of a sickle moon hovering on his right shoulder like a wreck of a butterfly's wing. Kotori sat on the chair next to the couch, in plain white as she loved to wear and with no birds poking out from the loops of her hair for once.  
>Yuzuriha shared Sakura's couch, and waved with a grin at Kamui as he saw her, her Inuki perking up slightly as he walked over. "Welcome home, Kamui-san." she greeted him with a warm smile. "I'm sorry I didn't get to say so before, Inuki and I were out visiting Keiichi-san all morning and we only saw Subaru-san and Sakurazuka-san this evening in time to greet them." Inuki stood up and licked his hand for emphasis.<br>He couldn't help but smile back at her. "It's alright. How is Keiichi doing?" he added with genuine curiosity that she didn't miss.  
>"He's doing fine, great really." she said brightly. "He's been painting something for you, but apparently it's not done yet and he wouldn't let me see it."<br>Kamui snorted as Fuuma drifted over to them, Sakura attached like a determined vine to his arm. "He hasn't changed, has he?"  
>Yuzuriha giggled as Inuki settled back down into the cushion he had been taking up before. "Nope!"<br>Kamui shook his head in amused fondness, and then looked around the room again. It was just them in it, he saw; wherever Seishirou and Subaru had gone, they weren't back yet.  
>Hokuto saw the amusement leave his face, and gave him a look as she settled back into the couch, resting her head against Kakyou's outstretched arm gently. "They'll be here, don't worry." she mouthed to him, but it did absolutely nothing to smooth out the tension.<br>Sakura tugged on his sleeve, and Fuuma's at the same time. "Sit down here." she told them with fierce affection in her green eyes. "There's enough room." she told Fuuma as he gave it a slightly apprehensive look.  
>She flopped down next to Fuuma as he gingerly tried to sit without disturbing the other girl and the translucent dog, who only gave him a sleepy blink, before stretching out farther. Kamui glared at the hound, seeing exactly what it had done.<br>"I'm sorry Kamui-san." Yuzuriha said, tapping the dog's shoulder in reprimand. This had the effect of not making him move at all, but simply yawn in exaggerated calmness. "Inuki, _move_." she told the dog more sternly.  
>Kamui looked at Fuuma, then shrugged. "Don't worry about it." he told her as he stepped back.<br>Fuuma made a startled sound and all of the air rushed away in a huff as Kamui sat down on his lap. "What?" he asked when everyone's eyes flew to him. "There's no room on the couch any more, and I wanted to sit here."  
>Hokuto started to cackle, and Kakyou shook his head slightly, sending ripples of pale golden hair sliding over the dressing gown like a rain of stars. "Sakurazuka-san is already shy enough without you laughing at him, Hokuto-san." he said quietly, looking at her with vaguely stern golden eyes. "Remember, not everyone grew up with you as their mother."<br>She thankfully stopped laughing, but that didn't deplete the smirk on her face at all. "Well if I'm going to be their mother, then they'd better learn to get used to me. _You_ had to get used to me too, Kyou-chan."  
>Kamui could completely sympathize with Kakyou's sigh, and how he rested his face in his free arm. Underneath him, Fuuma shifted his legs awkwardly, and then stilled, but his thighs were tense enough to suggest that he hadn't calmed down at all. Hokuto looked over at him. "Tongue-tied, Fuuma-chan?" she asked with dark delight.<br>He forgot about being relatively amused by her antics, and glared at the woman. Hokuto was entirely unfazed, pulling one leg up onto the couch, linking her fingers over her knee, and resting her chin on that. "It's okay, I get that Kamui's stunning enough to steal all of your words."  
>Fuuma squirmed again, and Sakura shifted back from him just a little bit, bumping into Inuki's hindquarters. "No, that's not it." he got out, his tone sounding mostly embarrassed...and something else.<br>Hokuto blinked at him for a minute, and then grinned even more felinely, "Fuuma-chan. Is Kamui sitting on the wrong place on your lap?"  
>Fuuma made a choked sound, and her grin abruptly vanished, dying away. Kamui turned around to see his blush looking strangely brighter, and it took him a second to realize that it was because the blood that wasn't lingering in his cheeks and the bridge of his nose had abruptly drained away.<br>"Get off of him," Seishirou commanded from the doorway, tone lazy with more than a hint of danger lurking behind the blank gaze that he had aimed straight at Kamui. Beside him, Subaru stood there, more still than the shadows that danced about the room. "I would have thought that you'd known that if someone's white, that's generally a sign to _stop_ doing what you're doing."  
>Kamui got up without a word of protest, and didn't miss the tiniest shifting that Fuuma did in relief. A horribly guilty feeling ran through his stomach, bitter and cold at the thought that he'd been hurting Fuuma and hadn't even realized it.<br>Seishirou walked past him without a sound, long coat fluttering with his motions so that the cherry blossoms on it looked like they were real, floating along in an invisible breeze, to drape himself onto the couch gracefully, the coat caught under his thigh to prevent it from slipping away. Subaru followed him, but lifted a hand and brushed it against Kamui's cheek before moving to the couch himself, leaning against the arm. A silent forgiveness without question, his twin as gentle as ever.  
>A gentle tug on his sleeve had him assuming that Sakura was wanting his attention, but when he turned to look, Fuuma had regained some of his color, and the four of them on the couch had rearranged themselves so that Kamui could sit down, Inuki now sprawled gracelessly over the laps of both girls. Four sets of eyes looked up at him, ranging from pleading to lazy, but the ones that he was searching for something within were golden.<br>A second tug convinced him that at least the man had forgiven him enough to want him sitting there, and he sank into the spot, shrinking down as much as possible to avoid touching Fuuma more than the other wanted him to.  
>The clicking of heels drew his attention to his mother, who had stood up in a whirl of red fabric, discarding her black coat onto the space next to Kakyou with a roll of bare shoulders. Everyone was looking at her as she sauntered her way around the couches to the thing she prized most outside of her family and sewing utensils. Subaru had a faint smile on his face, one that might have had nothing to do with the fact that he'd been drawn down to lie on Seishirou's chest with long fingers sliding through damp hair over and over again, and it might have had everything to do with it.<br>The sound of wooden feet scraping over stone emanated through the room as Hokuto pulled out the bench and sat down with a flourish of skirts that left them covering her thighs easily, and the second thump of wood sliding back into the piano, baring a long row of keys long memorized.  
>Subaru sat up carefully, avoiding placing any elbows on his cushion, to look at his mother. "Are you going to play?" he asked, looking very curious.<br>Hokuto rested her fingertips on the keys, her smile softening, even if it did nothing to mute the tartness of her voice. "What did you think I was going to do, open it up for shits and giggles?"  
>Kamui sat up as well, as the first notes began to echo and repeat, the same three notes over and over again, before shifting the lowest up two. When she had the rhythm and pattern established, she added her right hand to the equation, high up enough to mimic a flute's soaring swoops.<br>Seishirou gave Subaru a smile that could only be fond and gentle as the vampire began to hum with it, small words mingling in that Kamui couldn't understand, but Seishirou obviously recognized. Although the familiar pit of angry resentment that Seishirou could have such influence over /his/ twin rose up in his stomach, it faded away almost as rapidly, his sister leaning against him affectionately as the song ended with a gentle flourish.  
>When she began to play the second song, her fingers spanning the keys to get an almost celestial harmony out of them, with Yuzuriha's help, Sakura managed to get the lazy hound off of her, and pulled Kamui up with her, over to the piano.<br>Hokuto smiled up at them as she trilled her fingers up to strike a chiming note near the top of the piano, and then began to sing. "_Why is it when I'm with you, so fair and wondrous, that the hours slip away on pearlescent wings_?"  
>Sakura joined in with her on the third line, resting her head on Kamui's shoulder peacefully as he wrapped one arm around her waist in return. "<em>Night descends on lifeless seas, silvery and silently, the first star is so bright<em>."  
>When he looked back at the others around the room, the tension seemed to have begun to diffuse entirely, any actions and memories from earlier discarded for the sake of time together. Kotori shifted and her wings.<br>When he looked back at the others around the room, the tension seemed to have begun to diffuse entirely, any actions and memories from earlier discarded for the sake of time together. Kotori shifted and her wings shuddered as she arranged them a little more neatly over the arm of the chair, and Kakyou smiled at them all, looking weary, but not enough to sleep. Yuzuriha had a smile on her face as she listened, one hand running over Inuki's evanescent fur over and over again, and Fuuma had closed his eyes to listen.  
>Kamui smiled at all of them in return, and wasn't surprised to find that he was truly happy to be home, even with a human and a dick of a changed vampire along with them.<br>The music seemed to swell beneath his mother's fingertips, and grow like flowers along a garden wall, reaching for the sun. She and Sakura sang in transcendent harmony, building the layers of melody up with the song. "_Moonlight destiny, in all of the worlds there is no person I want to love more. In the vast sky, the trembling of fate's threads say that this is meant to be_."  
>He couldn't resist joining in any more, and his tenor blended well with their sopranos. Fuuma's eyes opened wide in surprise as he heard Kamui's voice, and then he smiled, watching the three of them with all the wisdom he held.<br>Sakura hugged him a little tighter as the chiming notes before the second verse rang out again. "_After I met you, my fair and wondrous, everything around me became so vibrant. In the dark of lifeless seas, roads of stars so silvery lead to the sky._"  
>He lost the train of the song as Seishirou suddenly slid out from underneath Subaru with feline grace, standing up as tall as his frame would allow him. Subaru took his offered hand elegantly, standing up as gracefully as any deity. Standing close together, they looked like a statue of lovers, frozen in time for all to admire how closely they bonded together.<br>Sakura tugged on his sleeve with her free hand warningly as the second verse drew to a close and they went back into the chorus. Thankfully the words came back to him, and he was able to sing, swaying a little with Sakura in time with the music. "_Moonlight destiny, however far that I must walk, I still look to that ending. And today's dreams return to tomorrow's, brilliantly glowing in the dawn_."  
>When he looked over at Seishirou and Subaru again, they were still standing as close as physically possible without melding into one another and swaying together very slowly, like they were dancing.<br>Sakura leaned in a bit closer to him, the sound of her voice vibrating against his shoulder. "_Moonlight destiny. Overcoming all of our fears, spiraling throughout the years._" He smiled down at his dear little sister. _"When I'm with you, you turn my love to life. Together in the night."_  
>The music abruptly ended as Hokuto looked over at the dancing pair, and a rather comical scowl appeared on her face. "You're not supposed to dance slower than the music!" she called over at them, to Subaru's stunned look and Seishirou's smirk. "Dance in time and then it looks nice."<br>"Then play it so I can hear the rhythm." Seishirou told her, narrowing his eyes impishly, and Kamui almost had an idea of what he was planning on doing next.  
>Hokuto gave him a flat look, but returned to playing it. Kamui didn't chime in when they went into the last chorus, preferring to watch whatever Seishirou had in mind.<br>The vampire didn't disappoint, first speeding up the dance pace until they were swaying in time with the chiming notes, and then abruptly pulled them into something fast enough that Subaru almost tripped, starting to laugh in surprise as he adjusted easily to the rapid pace.  
>Kamui grinned as the notes emanating from the piano suddenly soured and stopped altogether with a slam. Hokuto whirled around again. "You two are horrible!" she called to them, any harshness to her words utterly destroyed by the fact that she was laughing.<br>Seishirou pulled Subaru closer to him as they stopped, perhaps somewhat dizzily, and smirked. "You said we weren't supposed to dance slower than the music. You never said we couldn't dance _faster_."  
>Kamui couldn't help but snort at the whole situation as his mother began to cackle. "Do you want to dance fast then?" she invited them teasingly, turning back to the piano. "I can play a faster tune."<br>Sakura leaned against him with an affectionate smile, and when Kamui looked over at Fuuma, he could see the man looking totally relaxed in the couch, smiling even with his eyes behind the glasses.  
>Seishirou clearly had no idea what he was in for as he took Subaru's hand again. "That sounds nice."<br>The piano almost seemed to roar to life as Hokuto abruptly started in on a song that was _much_ faster, and Seishirou stumbled on the rhythm for a moment before Subaru took the lead from him and they both whirled in some strange mixture of formal and free interpretation dance.  
>Sakura reached down and grabbed his hand. "Dance with me Nii-chan?" she asked with hope shining in her green eyes.<br>There was no way he could say no to those eyes. Gently pulling her away from the piano, they began to dance.  
>The liquid that sloshed in the cup he held rather uncertainly was a dark ruby red, and more transparent than blood. The scent of it was rather potent, and swam about in his head luxuriously. The warm room kept him pleasantly afloat and the warm arm around his chest that held its own drink was just grounding enough to prevent him from getting any more intoxicated.<br>Subaru watched the room rather serenely from the influence of the overly strong beverage his mother had seen fit to bestow upon them, looking over his family with the familiar sense of happiness that they were here. He could almost feel the rather feline grin that Seishirou wore from behind him, warmer than the room itself.  
>Kamui had placed himself, slightly flushed from the heat and his own wine, between Fuuma and Sakura, looking enough relaxed to let his shoulders slump and not bear his almost ever-present scowl, and ignoring their sister's small pout each time he lowered the level of wine in his glass.<br>Kotori had stood up from her chair to stand closer to the fire that crackled as merrily as a fire ever could, and if his mother's comment on the situation held any water, it was quite merry indeed, and had declined the offer of wine, instead just watching the inevitable descent into inebriation.  
>Hokuto had already gotten there, the flush on her cheeks had nothing to do with the warmth of the room or the fact that Kakyou was dozing off on her shoulder, blinking cat-like golden eyes sleepily, and probably only <em>not<em> completely dead to the world due to the fact that his wife could engage in volumes loud enough to drown out any shrieking fits from every other vampire in the castle at once without straining her voice.  
>Needless to say, when she forgot to control her volume, she left the rest of them wincing.<br>"And that's why Madame Magami _officially_ wrote it in her will that she loathed me and that the only reason she didn't disown Tohru right there was because he was the last young Magami at the time." she concluded her tale with an almost disastrous flourish of her glass, to the laughter of both Kamui and Sakura. "Stupid bitch." she continued, tipping the glass and her head back so that the short black hairs temporarily mixed into Kakyou's, who was just as amused as all of them, if rather more quietly. "No sense for a good prank."  
>Seishirou lifted his glass in a long range toast, single eye glittering with good humor. "I'm not so sure that most people would call it a <em>good<em> prank to deliberately show up to any dinner dressed exactly like your grand-aunt many times removed except edited to look more like a harlot's just to show her up, let alone your wedding dinner."  
>Hokuto shrugged, the action dislodging Kakyou for a moment before he shifted with her, and grinned. "Well Tohru liked it, and Grandmother was amused as ever, so I think it was good."<br>Kamui made a face. "I could have lived without the implications in that sentence." he told her with a frown.  
>Hokuto chortled as Subaru resisted the temptation to drop his face in his free hand. "But I didn't put them there, that was all you."<br>Kamui did rest his face in his hand, and still managed to avoid Sakura's questing fingers reaching for his glass. "But I want to try some, and Mother said I could from your glass." she pleaded with him as her fingertips passed far short of their goal, currently held close enough to Fuuma's mouth that the man probably could have stolen from it instead.  
>Kamui gave her a violet look. "If she's going to keep telling these stories, I'm going to need everything/ in this glass." he told her with all the stern affection he could muster.  
>It did nothing to dispel her pout.<br>Hokuto grinned at the three of them. "You're being so quiet, Fuuma-chan." she addressed the last on the couch. "Too many people talking for you?"  
>Fuuma shrugged, the firelight glinting off of his glasses. "If everyone else is having fun, I'm content to listen."<br>"Fuuma doesn't talk when other people are talking." Seishirou interjected. "He and Subaru can have an entire conversation out of nothing but silence. It's impossible to understand."  
>Kotori spoke up from her corner. "There isn't anything wrong with that, Seishirou-san." she said with her own quiet wisdom, wings twitching in a belying sign of an omnipresent tempest beneath the surface.<br>He had never seen her mad, he didn't want to.  
>Seishirou fortunately was able to diffuse the situation either recognizing that she was more dangerous than she appeared, or through sheer luck. "I didn't mean there was, just that sometimes it's a little confusing how they seem to be psychic without any psychic powers.<br>Kotori's wings shifted to lie flat against her back again, and she smiled. "Such is the mystique of introverts." she said with personal experience coloring her tone.  
>Kamui nodded along with her. "Although they aren't mystical when you've grown up with them." he replied, again moving his cup away from his sister. "Just quiet."<br>"I disagree." Seishirou said smoothly, and Subaru fought to not blush as the warm arm across his chest tightened slightly. "They are just as mystical, but one gets better at guessing why they aren't talking with the others."  
>Fuuma saluted them both with his wine glass, far more controlled than Hokuto looked or Subaru felt. "Well the answer is obvious, isn't it, Subaru-san?"<br>Subaru smiled, well aware that at least Seishirou was going to laugh when he joined in. "Because often there's no need to talk about a topic where everyone else already has something to say, since often, however correct the sentence is, it will simply be ignored because it was not said at the top of one's lungs."  
>Kamui snorted, but it was drowned out by Hokuto's laugh. "Formal as always, Subaru. You could just say that you don't talk because stupid people don't listen, but instead it comes out all formal."<br>He cringed slightly, and the wine in his glass tipped back alarmingly towards his hand. "I didn't want to be rude." he told the wine glass softly, and she continued to chortle.  
>Seishirou pressed his lips against the back of Subaru's neck, and a tingling sensation that had nothing to do with the wine arced up his arms and down his spines so that he shook almost imperceptibly, and got an affectionate sound for his troubles.<br>Hokuto's smirk promised absolutely nothing good, although her shifting about woke Kakyou up the rest of the way, with him reaching out to steal her glass before she managed to ruin the cream of the couch. "That reminds me of when you two were children, _little_ children." she added with a slight drunken wobble to her voice, and he couldn't remember being more grateful to Kakyou, as he watched her wave one of her hands presumably at what height they had been. "All big eyes and following everyone around because you were so scared of being left alone. So adorable."  
>Kamui scowled, his mouth pulled into one nearly invisible light, face tinted rose by the dancing flames. "<em>Mom<em>. do you really _have_ to?"  
>She blinked at him as if she couldn't imagine him saying such a thing, but the grin she was forcing from taking over her lips belayed the fact that she had entirely expected it. "Well Sakura never saw you when you were little like that, and Sei-chan and Fuuma-chan missed out on it too."<br>"I wasn't _born_ until after you'd grown out of that state." Seishirou hissed in his ear, sounding rather disappointed, and Subaru hoped that the blush crawling up his neck would be nice enough to be mistaken for the effects of the fire.  
>Hokuto leaned back into the couch, somehow managing to completely avoid catching any of Kakyou's hair with her shoulders. "I remember when Subaru was small, and whenever he had nightmares, he would climb out of bed and walk over to wake me up with his big green eyes looking so sad and ask if he could crawl into bed with me."<br>He could remember it too, both the sense of feeling protected and safe cocooned between his mother and his father, and then happier when Kamui would inevitably follow him, rubbing at his eyes sleepily and not bothering to ask before trying to climb in, the nightmares themselves.  
>That didn't mean that it wasn't as embarrassing as being walked in on in the middle of kissing, and the blush he'd been hoping so desperately to fade, instead consumed his face, leaving him feeling like he'd just fallen in the fire and rather disturbingly dizzy. If it weren't for the grounding of Seishirou's arm, he might have fallen down. "M-Mother!" he cried, flustered, but unable to look away from her. "Please don't tell them that!"<br>She shrugged, unfazed by his embarrassment. "Well you don't do it with me any more, but I thought that Sei-chan might like to know where the habit came from."  
>Seishirou pulled him more securely onto the couch, and Subaru almost resisted the temptation to bury his face in Seishirou's shoulder. "Well it's never happened with me, but then I was always the one getting there <em>first<em>." Seishirou lied glibly to Hokuto and Sakura's continued laughter, Kotori, Kakyou and Fuuma's smiles, and Kamui's outraged scowl.  
>Hokuto abruptly shifted the weight of embarrassment from him to Kamui so fast it gave the rest of them whiplash, as she pulled her legs up under her and grinned in such a way that only evil could accurately describe it. "But climbing into bed with someone else isn't such a big deal, right Kamui? After all, we had to change your sheets every night." she laughed.<br>Kamui, who had opened his mouth to say something scathing, shut and opened it a couple of times as the implications of her comment washed over him. He went a shade of white comically pink in the firelight. "M-mother." he whispered in unabashed horror, "You-you didn't j-just say that."  
>She flapped a hand at him carelessly. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, it happens, and you stopped soon enough. But too bad all of those cute sheets went to waste..." she trailed off enough that Kamui could cringe and take rather a larger gulp of wine then he was evidentially comfortable with, judging by the way that he made a disgusted face and swallowed heavily, pulling the cup away as Sakura tried to take advantage of his distraction.<br>"Please Nii-chan." she whined, sounding rather annoyed. "Let me try some!"  
>"No." he told her in a strangled voice. "I need to be as drunk as possible or I will die before I can leave this room."<br>Sakura pouted and crossed her arms. Hokuto gave him a look. "_Kamui_, let your sister have some."  
>That tone of voice allowed, considered and thought of absolutely no argument, and indeed, Kamui handed over the goblet without a single word, probably for the best.<br>Sakura took one sip, and then her face screwed up adorably and she handed it back. "That's _yucky_." she told them all, shuddering. "How can you _drink_ it?"  
>Seishirou drank from his almost demonstratively, "Practice."<br>The not amusedly confused look on her face demanded a better explanation. "It doesn't taste as bitter when you try it a lot, and eventually you either start to like the taste or you learn how to swallow so you don't taste it." Subaru explained, leaning over to set his cup on the floor. He'd had more than enough for the night.  
>"Usually the latter." Seishirou added, and gave him an innocent look when Subaru turned around to look at him. "It is true." he added plaintively.<br>Hokuto smirked at Kamui, and Subaru braced himself for round two of Kamui's image getting utterly destroyed. "You also used to get your vowels confused." she began, smiling rather fondly, as if in remembrance. "Every time you said an 'r' sound in the middle of a word, it became an 'l'."  
>Kamui forcibly knocked back another shot and gave her a muzzy dark glare. Fuuma missed the danger zone entirely. "Oh really?"<br>"Oh yes," she chuckled, swirling the wine in her glass with ease. "He was so very fond of Subalu and Kotoli." Kotori herself smiled from the corner, but it was less teasing and more just remembering herself those times. "Also Cerbelous."  
>Kamui scowled harder, and when offered the remainder of Fuuma's wine, took it rather aggressively. "Mother, why only <em>me<em>?" he asked rather antagonistically, looking like an irate pigeon.  
>"What?" she asked with what had to be the most faked innocent tone he'd ever heard; and he'd watched Seishirou grow up. "At less I didn't tell them about how you used to follow your cousin Keiichi around. You had the most adorable crush on him!"<br>It was incredibly rude, but he couldn't help chuckling at the strange mix of horror and memories making themselves blatantly plain on his twin's face. He pressed the heel of his hand against his mouth in an urge to stifle the sounds, but couldn't keep from quaking still.  
>Kamui appeared to have given up on getting through this evening with his dignity intact, only shrinking into himself and his wine glass. "Subaru, <em>please<em> don't laugh." he said in a tone that said he understood if Subaru couldn't.  
>But he sobered himself anyway, and the gentlest pressure on Seishirou's arm convinced his partner to also cease.<br>The lonely tolling of a bell high up startled them all, and Subaru silently counted each ringing cry as it reverberated through the floor. _Five, six, seven, eight, nine_... and it sang out another three times.  
>Somehow his mother shook off the wine as if she'd had less than a glass as opposed to somewhere around ten, and stood up with a maternal briskness. "I hadn't realized how late it was getting!" she explained, as the rest of them all stood up with her, manners or instinct making them follow her without question. "If you don't want to be dead tomorrow, you should go to bed."<br>The last part seemed more suited for Kakyou, who was again blinking rather like a cat startled from a nap, but he had no qualms with following it at all.  
>She moved to hug Sakura first, his sister smiling and returning it with the energy of the dawn, before the girl ran to hug her father, getting a kiss on her forehead and holding onto him contently.<br>Kamui was the next to get a hug, and he sank into it like he had thirty years ago, the time blurring back into him for a moment before he remembered that he was supposed to have some dignity, and she let go of him. Fuuma got a gentle pat on his arm, and Subaru knew that he was grateful both for the fact that it was a relatively impersonal gesture, but also that she gave him it at all.  
>He got a hug last of her three, but he didn't mind at all. She smelled of cinnamon and roses, and all the wonderful memories of childhood rushed through him for a moment, leaving a stinging feeling pricking at his eyes.<br>But it passed like dandelion seeds caught on the wind, and when she let go, he was under control. "You take good care of my son tonight." she told Seishirou, smiling at him, and the way that Seishirou held him from behind said everything of his reply without a word.  
>She shooed them all out with a grin, even Kotori leaving with a soft shifting of her wings, before the door shut on her smile for the night. As the sounds of Hokuto and Kakyou behind the door faded out, Seishirou reached down and twined their hands together, fingers weaving seamlessly until it seemed like it was where they melded to one.<br>Sakura and Kotori went in the opposite direction of them, Kotori undoubtedly still going back to the greenhouse, and Sakura to her rooms on the other side of their mother's.  
>Ahead of them, Kamui walked with Fuuma, their hands not joined, but bumping together from time to time as they moved. Any words spoken between them were not loud enough for him to hear- and that was exactly as it should be.<br>They vanished into Kamui's room after a moment, and then they were alone.  
>Subaru seemed almost unnaturally warm, his hand almost hot enough to not suck heat away, and he wondered if it was the effect of the alcohol, or the fire, or just that he had soaked up so much vitality that it continued to emmanate from him even after they all were scattered.<br>Seishirou followed him through the hallway, the shreds of moonlight still leaking into the slits of windows showing how high it had risen since their bath, and were not outshone by the now extinguished torches, burned stumps black in both shadows and light.  
>The door to his room was cloaked in shadows, a pit in the night, but he could still see the outline of the handle as Subaru opened it up into his own room, pulling him in gently.<br>The fire within had burned down to mostly embers, the open window sucking out much of the hot air, but Subaru seemed to be relieved by the chill, a small tremor running through him as he walked towards the window, letting Seishirou's hand fall in case he didn't want to be impacted by the cold.  
>Subaru turned around and gave him an affectionate smile. "Sorry, it gets really warm after a while in Mother's rooms." he explained. "I've always preferred it a little cooler."<br>Seishirou smiled back at him from over by the fire. "So that explains the utter lack of caring for when it was snowing on you. Because you like it cold"  
>Subaru tried to cover his still-present smile with his hands. "You never said anything about it before. I thought you would have realized that I'm not bothered by things like snow."<br>He walked over to steal one of Subaru's hands for his own, pressing it against his cheek. "You're a flower, how do you like snow?"  
>Subaru blushed then, a pretty rosy color in the starlight. "W-well it doesn't bother me, and sometimes i-it feels nice to be something so soft."<br>He had to lift up an eyebrow at that. "Snow isn't soft. It's cold, how can it be soft?"  
>The vampire let out a soft laugh at that statement and leaned closer to him, turning his hand around to caress Seishirou's cheek. "My Seishirou-san." he said lovingly.<br>Seishirou reached up to return the soft sensation, brushing his fingers over soft cooling skin. A heartbeat later, he leaned in further and kissed Subaru, as gently as he could.  
>The taste of wine and laughter still lingered on Subaru's lips, and for a moment he thought he could feel the curves of the couch and the heat of the fire again, before he returned to much more interesting things, like the fact that Subaru was sliding his hand up against the back of his head, preventing escape. He still fit perfectly against him, seeming to lock them together into two halves of a whole when Seishirou was able to hold him there.<br>Subaru's hair was soft under his fingertips, silky and smooth and he ran his hands over it again and again as Subaru moved his lips against Seishirou's, sending pleasant tingling feelings through his body. Oh how he had missed this, being able to touch him without revulsion or bad memories souring the experience and calling up experiences he didn't want to remember. Subaru had been the first to break through the walls and that was how he wanted it. The past was far behind him, and he had every intention of keeping it there.  
>Subaru clung to him, the hand not in his hair now clutching at the back of his coat, pulling the embroidered cherry blossoms up his hip, and he was breathing, little faint sensations fluttering into his mouth as somehow Subaru took all the myths of kissing and turned them backwards. His eyes were shut in piece, black eyelashes slicing against the perfect white of his face and no longer blushing, but a living marble statue in the starlight.<br>Rapidly the other vampire seemed to forget how to stand up, and Seishirou caught him up in his arms as Subaru fell against him, lips working harder against his and the dampness of his tongue seeping through. He shivered a little bit, but stilled when Subaru started to draw back, incorrectly recognizing a trigger sign, kissing him harder to get the point across.  
>Opening up his mouth to Subaru's questing tongue, he heard and felt the other vampire make a desperate sound in the back of his throat, something akin to a purr and a mewl at the same time. Subaru was still warm in his arms, not heavy at all, but it was difficult to keep his balance easily when Subaru was so determinedly leaning into him.<br>It was rather disappointing to have to pull away just after reaching that part of the kissing, but he had no intention of toppling over and dropping Subaru on the floor. He didn't let go though, and looked at Subaru as he blinked open green eyes with brilliant confusion. He was slightly flushed now, seeming to have either _only now_ realized how close they were, or was having some trouble climbing back down from cloud nine.  
>His voice was a rather husky whisper that make him want to shiver for much darker reasons than just kissing, "Why did you stop?" he asked, looking a little lost.<br>Seishirou was more than half tempted to return to kissing him at that and screw the consequences of inevitably falling on the floor, but managed to refrain from kissing him senseless. "You're going to fall if I move."  
>Subaru almost immediately put two and two together and blushed a brighter red, abruptly hiding his head in the crook of his shoulder. He mumbled something that Seishirou caught easily, but was just blurred enough to allow an excuse to tease him.<br>"What was that?" he purred at the smaller vampire.  
>Subaru made a noise in his throat and repeated the sentence, just as blurred as before.<br>He couldn't help but grin at his partner, enjoying the unexpected flip from lustful to shy. "I'm afraid I can't understand you when you're talking to my shoulder. Please repeat the sentence?"  
>Subaru removed his face from his shoulder just enough that he could be heard more clearly. "...I said we could go kiss on my bed if you'd prefer..."<br>Seishirou let out a soft laugh, and Subaru cringed, but he could feel the shy smile again pressing into his skin, soft and tender. "That sounds like a good idea." he told him, and was surprised to not feel the twinge of hesitation that usually accompanied such things.  
>He was getting better. Finally.<br>Subaru didn't let go of him through their walking past the window and slivers of starlight to the curtains cutting off his bedroom door from the rest of his suite, Seishirou pushing it aside rather than making Subaru turn more than his head to watch where they were going, and it swished back into place with an aura of cutting away any other sounds in the world.  
>It was even darker in his room, and warmer, like a cave of seduction already prepared, preventing the participants from being seen by any others, unwanted anyway. Subaru caught the corner of his mouth in the shadows, quickly sliding in the correct direction to kiss him fully.<br>Unlike their last kisses, this one seemed to _burn_ in all the best ways, curling through his stomach and sliding down his legs. Subaru pressed closer to him again, all long limbs and grace, and Seishirou let his eye fall shut and sunk into the sensations, enjoying the actions without memory behind them. He rested one hand on the small of Subaru's back, felt the pulse of life even through the heavy fabric and tangled the other in Subaru's hair.  
>The vampire was warming up again, and he wondered dimly what was causing it, but since it was unimportant to the act of kissing, he dismissed the thought to return to licking at Subaru's lips and feeling the puffs of breath that Subaru made in response.<br>His pants were starting to become mildly uncomfortable, which was an interesting response, and he was getting tired of standing.  
>Subaru made a yelping sound when he abruptly pulled them over towards the bed, but became much less complainy when Seishirou pulled him down on top of him, the vampire somehow avoiding slamming any knees or elbows into painful places.<br>He actually shivered a tiny bit when Subaru returned to kissing him after a moment of adjusting them so they were lying flush, and nipped playfully at his lip just a little bit. Seishirou pulled the smaller vampire closer to him, and bit back the growl of pleasure from Subaru continuing his actions.  
>He was fumbling, and fumbling was the word, since Hokuto seemed to have sewed them on tightly enough that he couldn't get them to bend around the tiny slits in the fabric, with the buttons of Subaru's coat, attempting to push the flat discs through so he could get rid of that fabric. Subaru was, much more deftly, since he'd had far more experience with his mother's style of sewing, undoing his as well, and brushing his fingers against his chest through the white shirt.<br>At last he got the hang of how to remove the buttons, and then he was trying to push it off of Subaru's shoulders without disrupting either his hands or his mouth from their pleasing actions. This was something that turned out to be rather impossible in hindsight, and Subaru broke away from his lips to shrug the coat off in one smooth rolling of strong shoulders, the fabric resting on his legs before sliding to the floor with the weight of it all.  
>Subaru's mouth was insanely warm on his, licking at his lips until Seishirou opened up his mouth, and darting in to brush against his canines. His hands were again on Seishirou's chest, running gently against his neck before to his shoulders, pushing the black away until he arched into Subaru's touch and allowed the vampire to free his arms until he could leave the cherry blossoms and the coat behind to pull Subaru closer to him. Subaru's knee bumped his before pressing much more determinedly into the bed so that Seishirou was trapped in a shield of a vampire who had quite literally held his life in the palm of warm hands for more than half his life.<br>Subaru's fingers were then working at the buttons of his shirt, sending virulent waves of fire through his body with each new touch. He was clenching at the back of Subaru's shirt, the thin cloth feeling like it was threatening to rip as he pulled it tighter against the curves of his back.  
>When Subaru finished with the buttons, he slid his hands up Seishirou's stomach, caressing the curves and bends as he sucked in air at the beautiful fiery sensations.<br>He didn't want to stop, not at all.  
>Subaru was kissing him rapidly, hungrily as if he wanted to drink in everything that was Seishirou and keep him forever in his heart. The lightest touches of his fingers, his hands were enough to steal the breath from his lungs, tighten his pants beyond comfort and make the tiniest part of him cry out for more.<br>He wanted Subaru, in every way possible, to be his.  
>Subaru placed a warm hand on the his thigh, and there was a moment of hesitation. For a split second he froze at that touch, unable to respond, unable to move.<br>Subaru immediately pulled his hand away as his mind automatically flashed back to Setsuka, the horribly seductive way she moved, her dark feline grace, and her bitterly exposed body. She had forced it all onto him.  
><em>"Seishirou-chan...come here. If I'm happy, he can be happy. Alright? You know that you're the only person I'll ever love...My Seishirou-chan<em>."  
>They sat up together, and the vampire placed a hand over his heart, his eyes shimmering with aged wisdom that didn't seem to match his body, but he knew better. "Your heart is ready, and your mind is ready, but your body isn't. Not yet." he whispered, and Seishirou's eyes widened as he struck through to the bottom of the problem with the same ease as ever. "And that's okay. I'll wait until all of you is ready." he said, and leaned down to place a kiss on his mouth so chastely he could have screamed with frustration and still wouldn't have.<br>He narrowed his eyes in frustration and distaste, but refused to pout, at least visibly, to Subaru's low chuckle. At the slightly questioning look accompanying the sound, he sighed. "I don't _want_ to wait until 'all of me is ready'."  
>Subaru let out a full throated laugh and bumped their foreheads together affectionately. "It's okay to wait. I've waited all this time, I'm fine waiting longer. Don't worry about it," he added with the same strength of wisdom that Hokuto had, "Everything happens as hitsuzen means it to."<br>"You're talking like the witch. Stop that." he told the vampire. "It's creepy when you talk like the witch."  
>Subaru smiled a little wider at him, and then pulled away, moving off of him. Without Subaru's heat and weight, he began to feel a little more normal, and a lot more like he wanted to go back to what they were doing, except that he knew full well he was just going to keep <em>twitching<em> and shivering so that they couldn't get anywhere.  
>Damn nerves, he thought, and rolled onto his stomach in frustration to avoid pouncing the vampire right next to him, consequences be damned.<br>It took everything he had to not jump when Subaru reached over to gently touch the base of his neck, warm fingers brushing against the tense muscle there. "What are you doing?" he asked through the comforters, and then clenched his hands into the bedspread when Subaru began to knead at the spot his fingers were resting.  
>"You're so tense." Subaru mused out loud, "Would you like me to help?" he pressed the palm of his hands against the muscle and it slowly began to unknot under his skilled hands.<br>"If you keep doing _that_, yes." he said, perhaps slightly more growly than he meant, but it was to be expected with Subaru doing things like _that_.  
>Subaru laughed under his breath, and his fingers dipped a little below the collar of his shirt. Seishirou sighed and his fingers loosened slightly as Subaru began to touch him again, but much less intimately than before, and yet at the same time it was <em>more<em> so. A different type of intimacy, really.  
>Subaru at last started to draw his shirt off, finding it in the way of his actions, and then tossed it aside. He heard the soft sound of fabric encountering stone as Subaru again spread his hands over him, over the blades of his shoulders like he was caressing wings, tenderly and with a hint of worship. He sighed and allowed himself to relax a little more as the man began to press the balls of his hands in more firmly, working out the kinks.<br>As sensually as sex, Subaru leaned further over his body, straddling him before sitting down gently, the fabric and skin within of the inside of his thighs as hot as a brand, and his hands began to move more intensely, more heavily. Seishirou couldn't hold back a moan as everything in his back gave into the touch, and all of the blood flow in his body balanced out to only a rapid pulse that soaked into the rhythm of Subaru's hands.  
>He thought back to the moment they had minutes before, and he sighed. He desperately wanted to be with Subaru in the most intimate way possible; he wanted to <em>please<em> the man, if anything else, thank him in all the ways he could. In his years of adolescence, he had dreamed about Subaru in wholly unaltruistic ways on occasion- he couldn't help himself. In a young frame where hormones usually got the best of him, he couldn't do much to stop the urges. Not until...well, he still had no intention of remembering it.  
>But to be with him now, like this, even if not in the way he had pictured it, was perfect. He couldn't begin to describe <em>why<em> it was perfect, but it was.  
>Seishirou sighed with content as Subaru pulled his hands away, running them down his back smoothly and climbing off of him to collapse next to him on the bed, looking like a cat who had been at the cream.<br>He arched his back up and braced himself on his elbows to look down at his lazy partner, smirking. Subaru had a grin that he might have very well stolen from Kamui's face, so impish it was. "Why are you running away?" he asked softly, eyes glittering teasingly in the dark.  
>Seishirou snorted. "I'm not running away, does it look like it?"<br>Subaru laughed, a soft sound that rang through the darkness of the room, and writhed against the bed until he was looking up, ghostly against the dark blankets. "It looks like you're the big bad wolf about to eat me?" the tone of his voice said that he wouldn't mind certain definitions of eating.  
>Seishirou resisted the temptation to fall back on the bed laughing, and instead made a rather playful growling sound at the laughing vampire. "I'm looming over you then," he began, trying to keep his amusement from ruining the sentence, "the better to flirt with you, my dear."<br>Subaru laughed harder, trying to stifle the sounds. "Why _Seishirou-san_," he purred, arching his body in ways that no one else was allowed to see, "What a big..._smirk_ you have." he choked out and started to giggle again, the sound almost hysteric in the way that he couldn't stop.  
>Seishirou let himself fall onto the bed, unable to restrain amusement and hold himself up at the same time. "I know a few other things of mine that are big." he told the snickering vampire.<br>Subaru's eyes flashed open, strangely strong in the dark, and his grin could have made a midnight sun, it was so bright. "Like your feet?" he asked, rubbing his toes against the aforementioned pieces of his body. "Or your hands?"  
>Seishirou reached forwards and folded one of his hands around Subaru's slimmer ones, letting the mirth fade away. There were so many things that could have filled the silence, that maybe should have filled the silence, but he didn't really want to say them.<br>Subaru's smile said it all, and he squirmed closer to him, mussing the blankets further. "I love you too, Seishirou-san." he said, gently pressing their twined hands to his cheek.  
>This would always be the most endearing part of Subaru, the part where he always understood without needing anything at all to hint at it. He just knew.<br>Subaru moved closer to him still, suddenly quiet as if the joking and teasing were no longer appropriate for the situation. "You're so warm, Seishirou-san..." he mused softly, burying his face into his chest. Subaru had at last settled back to his normal lack of heat, and Seishirou folded him up a bit closer in his arms.  
>The post-midnight chill had begun to seep within the castle, tendrils of winter that still lingered in the later reaches of spring slinking over stone floors and making the whole world different, and Seishirou shivered as it blew in from the open balcony, the curtains doing nothing to stop the flow of air, and he sighed, knowing that if he wanted it warmer, he had to get up and close it. It was, of course, very inconvenient, since he had no desire to get up and leave his cuddly Subaru, but he knew that he had to if he wanted to be more comfortable.<br>He groaned, and Subaru stirred in his arms. "What is it, Seishirou-san?" he asked, suddenly concerned.  
>"Nothing." he told the other vampire, and got a flat look complete with the lowering of eyebrows in an unspoken command to tell him <em>now<em>. "I'm just going to be cold if we don't close the balcony up."  
>He got a slight smile from Subaru then, and he pulled away form Seishirou's arms, moving up towards the head of the bed slowly, like an exhausted cat. Seishirou lay there a moment longer before summoning the will to get up and <em>close<em> the damn doors.  
>Walking towards the open balcony, he looked out beyond the curtains as he fumbled for the latches, and saw the moon high above, the goddess of a silver world in her cloak of stars and deep. He closed it firmly behind him, and the moonlight collided against his bare feet, bleaching them of normal color and leaving him as ghostly as any vampire who was born that way. Then he stepped out of the pool of light and returned to himself.<br>Turning around, he saw that in the span of time that it had taken him to shut the balcony, that Subaru had managed to sneak under the blankets, had pulled himself to one side of the large bed and was looking at him almost impatiently, except Subaru didn't get impatient and even if he did, he wasn't going to say anything.  
>When he climbed into the bed, Subaru immediately curled up against him, nuzzling into his chest and inhaling. "You're so warm Seishirou-san. So comfy and...and warm."<br>He chuckled slightly, wrapping his arms around the other's thin frame, and kissed him lovingly. "You said that already Subaru-kun." he mused softly, reaching up to stroke soft black hair tenderly. "Getting a little tired?"  
>Subaru smiled in return, his eyes slightly barred by black eyelashes, and he wrapped his arms around the man's neck, and kissed him. It was a much briefer kiss this time, and cut off by Subaru suddenly pulling away and covering his mouth as he began to yawn, manners taking over things like being cute. "I'm sleepy," he tried to say through his yawn, and the hunter laughed at that, admiring at how insanely cute Subaru could be when tired.<br>"Then go to sleep, love." he whispered, kissing Subaru's forehead, and the vampire smiled in weary agreement. He yawned again, resting his head on Seishirou's chest and closing brilliant green eyes, and seemed to almost immediately shift into a space of dreams, fingers curling against his chest.  
>He let the smile linger on his lips a little longer before shifting forwards and kissing Subaru's forehead, and was interrupted by a yawn trying to crack his jaws open.<br>He held Subaru a little closer, and shut his eye, memorizing the gentle lines of his face to carry them into his dreams, along with rich green.  
>If the option was valid, he really wouldn't mind staying here forever, even though Kamui and Madame Magami and the strange shadow stalker woman lived there, because it was worth putting up with such idiots to see Subaru's smile.<br>To his immense surprise, when Kamui had entered his room, he had immediately gone for the window instead of the bed, and Fuuma wondered if the slender vampire was more intoxicated then the amount of wine that he had consumed suggested. "What are you doing?" he asked as Kamui swung open the windows and the chill of the night rushed in.  
>He got a wholly devious grin, and then he hopped up to balance on the carved stone sill. "I want to show you something, now that it's late enough." he said, standing up so that his head and shoulders curved up out of view. "And if you follow too slowly, I'll lock the windows on you."<br>Fuuma chose not to point out that his windows locked from the inside, and followed him reluctantly to the window. Outside, the moon had risen to its zenith, casting silver beams over the garden and the stream glittered with the bite of cold and starlight, illuminated further by tiny flecks of blue that gleamed like torches, not crystallized by the moonlight.  
>Kamui pulled himself up without much exertion coloring his tone, the violet coat sweeping out into the night as he pulled his legs up, then slipped away out of side. "Come on up already!" the vampire called from out of sight, "There's a ladder right above the top of the window."<br>He hesitated, then climbed into the sill, having to crouch far more than the smaller vampire. He glanced down, and suddenly the ground seemed a _lot_ farther away than it had when he was safely inside. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked, bracing whitening knuckles against the frame.  
>There was a scuffling of leather on stone that did absolutely nothing for his nerves, and then he could see Kamui by looking up, clinging like a bat to extended stones poking out from the room like they would in a gym wall. "It's fine. Stop being a scaredy-cat and come on!"<br>Fuuma made a face back up at the vampire, although he was sure that Kamui wasn't in a position to look down at him safely. "I'm not 'being a scaredy-cat.'" he said indignantly.  
>"Yes you are." the vampire said as he moved up with cat-like ease. "Now come on."<br>Fuuma sighed, and bracing his hands hard against the sill, started to stand up. All too soon, he reached the maximum height of where he could stand in it and was forced to let go of the frame in order to scrabble for one of the extended rocks that Kamui was using.  
>The texture of the stone he grabbed was rough enough to cut a careless hand, and he gripped it as tightly as possible, standing up shakily to reach for the next one before standing up fully. He could see the ends of Kamui's coat fluttering like bat wings against the stones, and he followed that. "Oh good." the vampire said as he seemed to <em>hop<em> up another set of stones. "You're making progress."  
>"Please be quiet." he said, and hoped his voice sounded nowhere as weak as it felt to him, trying in vain to not look at the suddenly more terrifying than usual drop.<br>Kamui snorted, but remained silent otherwise, to his own silent gratitude, only springing up the rest of the way to peep over the edge like a startled songbird, which didn't do a thing to boost his confidence.  
>Fuuma sighed, looked down again and prayed that if he fell out of the window to his sure death, Seishirou would bury Kamui in his grave until he joined him, and then pulled up with all of the muscles in his arm.<br>His head smacked against the top of the frame before he remembered to move further out, and then he was able to balance himself _very_ awkwardly while he reached for the next stone with his lower hand. When he got it, he held on tightly, and then reached for the next, and the next, far too many lessons of specialized p.e. coming back into play and mostly taking over, although a spotter's harness would have made him feel much better.  
>When he reached the limits of how tall he could stand, he took a moment to prepare himself, using his upper arm as a convinient replacement for his hand in pushing his glasses back onto his face. "It's easier than it looks, just jump up." Kamui offered unhelpfully, shrugging his shoulders and continuing to watch.<br>Fuuma glared up at him for being _supremely_ unhelpful, and pulled up with all of the strength in his arms at the same time as he jumped up from the frame, clinging so tightly he thought that he might take the stepstones down with him.  
>His feet hung out in space for a stomach-dropping second before he was able to pull himself up far enough to brace them against the frame, and then reach for another stone as quickly as possible. He knew he had to be as white as the moon above, and yet since he was doing it, he wasn't going to quit now.<br>He kicked off of the frame, and managed to catch his foot on the first stone he'd found before. He got the other one on the next stone, pressed himself as close to the wall as possible, and started the thank all of the gods that Seishirou had said weren't real for not dropping him from the castle at that time.  
>The sound of applause rang out above him. "Congratulations!" Kamui called down, and he could hear the smirk even though he wasn't looking up to see if it was there. "You have officially beaten Subaru in how fast you can manage to get yourself onto the roof part of the roof without a parent or guardian there to guide you."<br>He was tempted to tell Kamui to fuck himself after all of that, but he was too busy being glad that he hadn't fallen, and that he wouldn't if he continued to hold on to the wonderfully solid stones. "Please don't give me commentary or family history right now." he gasped out, and again used his arm to push the glasses slipping off the bridge of his nose back up to rest there, hoping the sweat falling down his face wouldn't cloud the lenses or slick them too much.  
>He took a moment longer to find his courage, or sheer stupidity, to make it up the rest of the way, remembering that at least the top of it was solid and <em>flat<em>, and that spurred him on.  
>First one foot up, and then another. Left hand, right hand, grip and rest for a moment, then begin again. He was sure that Kamui wanted to kill him with frustration, but he wasn't going to be able to make it up any faster.<br>At this point he had no clue how he was going to get back _down_, but that problem could be set aside for the moment.  
>At last he was able to get his hands onto the flat part of the roof, moving his feet very cautiously up the last steps so that he didn't slip after all of his work. Kamui grabbed one of his hands, holding on tighter than his body looked capable of. Fuuma didn't protest the tight grip; it was doing something for his nerves just to have him there to catch him.<br>When he got all the way onto the roof, he promptly allowed himself to fall over somewhat dramatically and thank again the gods that didn't exist for not throwing him down to become a bloody mess.  
>Kamui hovered over him somewhat awkwardly, at last reaching out to rub against his back right against his spine. Fuuma felt the slightest strangest desire to purr, but it seemed an entirely reasonable reaction to the nausea swirling about his stomach. "Why were you so scared?" the vampire asked with inhuman curiosity. "I mean, I know that if you fall too far, you'll splatter and die, but why were you scared in the first place?"<br>Sometimes he kind of sort of forgot that Kamui had spent little time around humans, and that it was his twin who could answer all the pertinent questions towards human habits within reason. "Generally if we know that it can and will kill us without mercy if we mess up, we tend to be more scared of it." he answered through the roof, not quite at the point where he was ready to peel himself away.  
>Kamui drew his hand away. "Oh..." he said intelligently. "I never thought of that."<br>Smashing his head into the roof was not an appropriate response to that comment, but it was very tempting. Instead, Fuuma forced himself to sit up, sitting well away from the edge. The vampire sitting by him appeared to be lost in thought, violet eyes turned towards the heavens as he pressed his lips together into a thin line and then loosened them.  
>"What did you want to show me?" he asked after a moment of waiting, and Kamui blinked in surprise. Then he grinned, a slow curling of his lips that bared elongated canines elegantly to glint ominously in the moonlight.<br>"Is it not obvious?" he asked with an amusement that rivaled Seishirou's for sheer ability to piss off all around him, and spread his arms, the cloak tumbling away from his arms like a river of night as he indicated exactly what Fuuma was supposed to be looking at. Then he appeared to get a better idea. "Wait!" he called, and abruptly leaned forwards to cover Fuuma's eyes. "Not quite yet."  
>"And what am I supposed to be doing?" he asked, using the annoyance in his voice to cover up any fear or trepidation from the sudden action.<br>Kamui's lips brushed against his ear and he shivered slightly as the breath of words brushed against sensitive skin. "Lie back down, on your back. Trust me." he intoned, and he dimly thought that Kamui could have a good career as an hypnotist if he ever wanted.  
>Fuuma didn't fight the vampire, knowing full well how strong Kamui could be when in charge and well fed, and instead laid back and hoped that his trust was not being misplaced again. The cold stone seeped through his pants and up the back of his neck, rather like shards of ice, and he resisted the temptation to shiver again.<br>Kamui's fingertips lingered against the lids of his eyes for a moment longer, then drew away like a painter's brush. He kept them shut for a moment longer, then opened his eyes.  
>What he saw, lying on the roof with nothing to bar him from the sky, was nothing short of beautiful. Except that wasn't a strong enough word for it, but none came to mind. Like a ring of endless light, the night sky spread out before him, and unlike all the worlds that he'd had time to relax and really <em>enjoy<em> such a thing, there was not a single light other than the moon to try and blot it out.  
>Hundreds of thousands of stars spun out across the tapestry of the sky, celestial brilliance glittering with a hundred thousand worlds with so many thousands of stories to tell. And through all of it, a band of light as pale as ghostly milk streaked there, too long lasting and far too wide to be a comet's trail.<br>He was trapped on a roof staring at the sky, and aside from violet eyes filled with mystery, he couldn't name a single thing in all the worlds that he'd been to that could rival it for sheer wonder.  
>He inhaled sharply, and let his eyes spin about to try and memorize as much of it as possible, from the band of light to the stars shaped like the sleeve of a trailing kimono, or a club-wielding hunter forced to his knees, to the cluster that glittered somewhat dimmer than the brightest collections, but were close enough to be a pack of sisters fleeing from a terror nipping at their heels, to the wide disc of the moon, and back to the center.<br>"It's beautiful..." he whispered, barely sure that he had even said it, or that it had been heard under the radiance of the world.  
>"Do you like it?" Kamui said, some strange sound clogging up his throat, and Fuuma couldn't understand why the confident vampire would be tripped up by that.<br>"It's amazing. I can't believe I'd never seen such a thing before..." his voice traced off, and he smiled at the uncertain-looking vampire before returning to try and see more of the sky that bowled around him peacefully.  
>He missed seeing the change on his face, but he could hear the smile on Kamui's face coming out and softening his voice. "I'm glad." he said, scraping his nails along the roof lightly and then stopping.<br>A heavy silence fell between them for a few minutes, deep and forgiving. At last he returned to the first seven-starred group he'd seen. "Do you have names for the star groups here?" he asked.  
>Kamui lifted up his head and blinked. "The what?"<br>"The star groups." he continued, "Where there's a shape in a pattern of stars and you give them names to decide what they are?"  
>Kamui stared at him blankly for another few seconds, and then laughed slightly, pushing a few strands of dark hair out of his face. "Well for one thing, we call them <em>constellations<em>, and yeah, we do."  
>"Would you show me?"<br>Kamui looked at him for a moment, and then shrugged and moved over to lie down next to him, pressing himself as close as possible in order to not screw up where they were looking with minor things like position differences. "Okay, so you see that cluster of seven stars, really close together, right there?" he asked, pointing up towards the second group of stars he'd found before. He nodded in admittance, and the vampire continued. "We have two names for them, mostly because our paternal grandfather, before he died, went and found another culture with a different name for them. We usually call them the Pleiades, but they are also Subaru."  
>Fuuma turned his head to cast a startled glance at the vampire, who seemed to be enthralled by the stars, but noticed nevertheless, and grinned. "Yup, my brother's named after a constellation."<br>"And what does your name mean?" he asked.  
>Kamui turned his face back to the stars. "The box shape right there with the arching stars on all for sides is our alicorn symbol, and up past it, almost out of sight, the upside-down funky double-u is The Foolish Queen, who bragged about her child's beauty until she was captured by the gods and hung in the sky so that her beauty could last forever. That girl is right there, to the northwest, as a galaxy now, and she's in a much kinder shape than her mother."<br>Fuuma could agree with that, seeing as how it couldn't be comfortable to sit for eternity upside-down. "Are any of your other family constellations too?"  
>Kamui sighed heavily. "Well I wouldn't say that one of them is my <em>family<em>, but I'm pretty sure Subaru would disagree with me on that." He pointed up towards a string of stars that could have been a dipping spoon. "That's the Ladle, which is also part of the Great Cat, and that's also Hokuto, so my mother's up there." Then he went and traced out the seven-starred group he'd found first. "And that's the great hunter, who is trying to either protect or capture the seven maidens of Subaru's constellation...also known as _Seishirou_." he hissed out the last word.  
>"Oh." he said intelligently. "Wait, so my brother's named after a constellation?"<br>Kamui shrugged next to him. "Don't ask me why, since he even had the conceit to be on the same side of the silver river as him."  
>"The silver river?" he asked, but even as the sounds left his mouth, he could already see what Kamui was referring to.<br>Kamui snorted. "It's only the biggest thing in the sky, and the most prominent." he said, but it was affection that layered the underside of it and not anger or resentment or even annoyance.  
>"So you're not in the sky?" he asked after a moment.<br>Kamui shook his head, wisps of black hair moving like shadows against the roof tiles. "Nope. Star names are very rare, and Mother and Father didn't think that a star name suited me."  
>"So what does your name mean?" he asked again.<br>Kamui ignored him in favor of staring at the sky more. Fuuma sighed, and waited, but Kamui was stubbornly obstinate about keeping his mouth shut on that confession.  
>"Your family is very nice." he conceded at last, and smiled. "Much nicer than most people around."<br>Kamui looked over at him for a brief second, his face blank, and he sighed heavily. "Well they're _something_ at least." he said, seemingly unable to take the compliment for what it was. "Most likely batshit insane, but there's nothing I can do about that."  
>Fuuma snorted at the relative naivety of the sentence. "I grew up with batshit insane, and they aren't it. They're just...quirky, is what they are."<br>"And by quirky, you mean batshit insane." Kamui said, not without amusement of his own. "Even Subaru, if you get him in the right moods, is certifiably off of his head with madness."  
>"All the best people are." he said in reply, thinking of an old book he'd read with that line. "Do you like them anyway, though?"<br>Kamui sat up to lean over him, tips of his hair glittering with the faraway stars, and his mouth twitched into the tiniest of smiles. "Yes I do, despite their insanity." his eyes took on a distant cast, as if he were falling into the pool of his memories. "Mother, she's always been there for me, never didn't have the time to answer a question or do something to make me happy. Even if it meant blowing off a Clan meeting, she'd just do it and go to play with me and Subaru. And she never did anything that was...chiding, I guess. Things like 'sit up' or 'eat your soup' never really passed her lips. She was more than just a mother, she was a friend to me as well. And she was able to teach the important things in life without actually needing to say them." he said, fiddling with the end of his cloak as he recollected his thoughts to continue on.  
>Fuuma watched him for a moment as the vampire was caught up in memory, his grin widening until it became a full fledged smile. "And Subaru, he's just always been there for me too, as much as he's been able to. We grew up together, were always together and knew what the other needed. I really couldn't have asked for more for more from him, and even if I <em>hate<em> your brother, I'm glad he's happy, because it's the best thing I can give him for all he's given me. And Sakura...when Subaru left and I was alone, even though Mother couldn't have planned it that way, she saved me. She was the first person I'd ever had to take care of, and even when it was the middle of the night and I just wanted to sleep, I would happily get up to take care of her when she dreamed bad things, whether they were just nightmares or future-seeing dreams, she saved my life in a way because I had to be strong to protect her."  
>The words were tumbling from his mouth rapidly, as if a dam had been opened up in his mind and the things he needed to say the most and had never admitted were allowed to come out. "Kotori's the closest thing I have to a big sister, and she's always been one for me. Even though she's quiet and is able to understand birds better than people, she always was there when Subaru and I wanted to see something new. She was the first person who helped me understand the weight of my power, even though she can only hear and speak to birds and not all the creatures in the world. And.." he trailed off, and swallowed heavily "And my father...I...I miss him. He was a good man. I wish I just could have said goodbye to him, at least...that I'd realized that what he was doing was going to change everything forever and just that I'd had time to tell him the things that were most important..." The stream of words trailed off, and when Fuuma really <em>looked<em> at him, he could see the pain of that parting still as clear as day, unable to let go just yet for whatever reason.  
>Fuuma watched him begin to pull himself together, or lock himself away again, and shake himself like a cat regaining control of the situation.<br>"Did you have a good family?" he asked, honest curiosity in his tone and posture. He obviously had no clue what he was asking for, but that was alright.  
>Subaru already seemed to know more about what happened than <em>he<em> did, it was only right, even if it hurt, that he share a little with Kamui, so that he could understand some things.  
>Also so that Fuuma could repay the debt of being honest. "I never knew my father, from what Seishirou said, Mother killed him before I was born." Kamui drew in a sharp breath at the words, but didn't interrupt. "My mother...well, if there was such a thing as an opposite of yours with the same cheerfulness, it would be her. She was born and raised in a family of assassins, and according to Nii-san, when she was fifteen, she slew all of them, and turned the profession she'd been born into from human hunting to vampire hunting. I never got involved in it!" he exclaimed as Kamui's eyes went dark with anger, "And Nii-san stopped really quickly and never got back into it, so it was just her really. But she was...very unbalanced. Some days she'd be almost normal, she'd make sure we had food to eat, and tend to her garden and leave us alone. But those were rare days, and usually she'd spend her free time when I was home and Nii-san wasn't to basically hurl as many bone-cutting insults at me as possible, and sometimes tell me that she didn't even know why she'd allowed herself to carry the second pregnancy to term if the child was just going to be a...failure." The words tasted just as bitter on his mouth as they did whenever she said them. "She died when I was ten after she...crossed a line...with both of us. I don't know what happened, but I'd never seen Nii-san so scared as when he told me to run and hide."<br>Kamui had stopped looking dangerous, and was now just looking stunned, and a little flattened. "Seishirou's probably the only reason I'm still here. Since my mother hated me more than anything, he raised me, from the day I was born. He wasn't very good at being around a kid, and sometimes he'd have to ask me over and over again if there was something he could do better just to be sure that I wasn't hurting, but he was always...there. And safe. My mother tried to kill me several times, and somehow Seishirou always protected me from it all."  
>His throat dried up and refused to say anything more, and he turned his eyes back to the stars. They stung a little, but he'd cried enough times for the things that she had done, and he didn't want to cry any more.<br>"I'm sorry." Kamui said unexpectedly, his voice incredibly quiet. Fuuma whipped his head around to look at him, and Kamui had his head bowed, looking uncharacteristically sad. "I didn't mean to drag up painful things."  
>Fuuma forced himself to sit up. "You couldn't have known." he said softly. "It's alright. I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't able to handle it."<br>"But..." Kamui trailed off, picking at the threads on his boot. "Talking about this is something that Subaru's much better at." he said at last, looking strangely flattened. "I don't know how to not offend with my words by saying things that shouldn't be said."  
>Fuuma couldn't resist the urge to snort at that. "You're doing fine, I don't care. If I wanted to tell Subaru, I would have told Subaru. But I told you instead."<br>Kamui looked up at him, violet eyes open as he'd ever seen them, and his breath caught and tangled in his throat. Then he smiled, a curve of lips that was completely genuine. "That is true. So, thank you."  
>Even if there was a way to reply to that besides the generic answer, he didn't think he could. He felt like he was back at high school, looking at the picture again and realizing that there was a reason that those violet eyes were so attractive.<br>A feather-light brushing of fingertips against his cheek drew out the ability to breathe again, except far too fast to try and calm down. His heart raced, but not with terror, and he suddenly felt like everything was all right, even if he was too high up by far and he didn't want to think about how he was getting off of the roof, that the world was finally balancing out enough to let him find his own footing.  
>All the blood in his body was probably rushing to his face to collect around the slight sensation of Kamui's fingers, tingling all the way up and sending gentle ripples of fire back down. He swallowed once, then again when it didn't solve the problem.<br>He'd kissed people before, it just had never been as interesting and heart stopping as it was now.  
>"Sorry if this is bad, I've never done this before." Kamui whispered, the tendrils of air from his words fluttering into his lips and tasting so sweet with their shy certainty.<br>He shut his eyes, and trusted.  
>Then wings smacked against the top of his head, and if he'd been standing up, he'd have fallen down. His eyes shot open, and he saw Kamui looking as startled as he felt, then absolutely furious, as he caught sight of whatever hit them.<br>Fuuma saw it a second afterwards, a pale bird soaring through the darkness on silent wings. Had he just been hit by an _owl_?  
>Clearly Kamui thought so, because he shot to his feet, yelling after it. "Fuck you, I was doing it just fine!" there was a soft hoot from over head. "I don't <em>care<em> if it was not according to normal owl rituals, I am _not a fucking owl_."  
>Fuuma gaped at him as Kamui continued to swear at the owl, who kept banking and turning to hoot down at him again, and was very glad that Seishirou wasn't up there.<br>If his brother had been there, he suspected Seishirou would be laughing too hard to stand up anymore.  
>At last the owl grew bored of bothering Kamui, and flew off in search of dinner...or breakfast, or whatever time it was for owls to eat at, and the vampire flopped back down to the roof. "Fucking owl!" he exclaimed at no one in particular. "Of <em>all<em> the times to fly by and offer advice, that was the fucking worst! Damn damn damn damn!"  
>He trailed off into a stream of expletives that only served to ruin the mood even further, and Fuuma couldn't help but suddenly see the whole thing as downright <em>hysterical<em>. How many times in life did one have the opportunity to be cock-blocked by an _owl_?  
>He started to laugh, little sounds that at first were easy to cover, but steadily growing louder and louder until he was shaking with it. Kamui's petulantly sulky look only added to the flames, and he bit on his hand in an attempt to stop laughing. Although he was not met with much success.<br>At last Kamui seemed to find the humor of the situation too, and started to chuckle himself. "Well now that the mood is completely and irretrievably dead, should we go back inside?"  
>That actually had a stronger effect of sobering him up than just about anything else could. "I have to climb back down now?" he asked, trying his best to keep it from being whiny.<br>Kamui snorted. "Yes, unless you'd rather sleep on the roof tonight."  
>Fuuma gave him a look. "Have you joined the ranks of your 'batshit crazy' family?" he asked, feeling immature enough to use air quotes at the vampire, and Kamui laughed, standing up slowly.<br>"I'll go first, and catch you if you somehow manage to fall to your untimely death while climbing down, which you won't because you'll know what you're doing."  
>Suddenly climbing down those stairs didn't seem as bad as before, although still inarguably bad, he thought he could handle it now. He stood up as well, starting to walk with Kamui to the edge of the roof.<br>Kamui went down first, first into a crouch, then turning around and feeling for the first hump of rock to put his foot on. "Would you like me to narrate my way down?" he offered with a smirk as he braced his hands on the roof and started to slide the other foot.  
>"You really don't have to do that." he said, and was summarily ignored.<br>Kamui moved the first foot down, and then began to narrate as therefore offered and decided on without Fuuma's input. "Okay so I've moved down a total of two steps, I can go down another two before I need to start holding onto the rocks."  
>Fuuma did <em>not<em> look down at those words, but instead pushed up his glasses and again wished that there was an easier way to get up and down off of this roof in the dark.  
>"I am putting my hands on the rocks now." Kamui continued, his voice low and sinuous with amusement. "It is very easy to climb down these rocks except for the last part."<br>"You can stop now." he said, and again was ignored.  
>"I'm...what's the right verb for the situation...<em>shimmying<em> down the rocks and it's completely easy. I know exactly where to put my feet next, is that your problem? They're spaced evenly along the roof so that it isn't hard to climb." Kamui continued to monologue with dark pleasure. "The only hard part is making sure that the window didn't blow shut so I can swing back through the window."  
>He wasn't looking at all, but that didn't stop the horrible feeling in his stomach when Kamui abruptly stopped talking and then there was a thud and a grunting sound. "Okay." the vampire called back to him, and the horrible feeling started to go away. "I'm inside my room now, the windows are very open, you can get in easily."<br>He considered the idea of just waiting on the roof until sunrise, but then realized that Kamui would probably go up and forcibly carry him down the stones, and that would be even worse than climbing down himself.  
>"Are you coming or not?" Kamui called up again, and Fuuma sighed, dropping to his knees and clutching at the textured tiles as he cautiously poked a foot over the edge, sliding it down the roof with a scraping sound.<br>The first hump of rock appeared under his foot at what seemed like the perfect time, delightfully solid, and he let out a sigh of relief. The first step had been taken.  
>"I'm going to be all grey by the time you get back in here." Kamui called up, and he froze for a second.<br>"Allow me my acrophobia and I'll be down in a few minutes." He yelled back and heard Kamui chuckle. He was getting rather tired of his attitude, and that more than anything was the main force continuing to drive him down the steps. First the second step, then the third. At the fourth, his foot almost slipped, and he shoved it on even harder than before, and hesitated a moment.  
>Five, and six, and then he had to reach down and grab the first stone in one white-knuckled hand to keep moving. He was never climbing up this roof again. The only thing keeping him on it now was rather misplaced pride.<br>Seven, eight, he was holding onto the stones tightly enough that he imagined them crumbling to pieces in his hands, nine, ten, Kamui seemed to be listening for him. Eleven, twelve.  
>At thirteen, Kamui called up to him again. "If you're on your thirteenth step down, you only have two before you need to swing into the window."<br>"Thank you so very much." he said dryly, and felt for the next step with even more fear than before. It rested under his foot, solid and sturdy, and then he had to swallow and reach for the next.  
>His stomach dropped from under him as he looked to see if there was one more thing he could stand on to get his hands lower before swinging in. The bronze frame of the window glinted dully in the moonlight, and despite the fact that it was a stupid idea, he moved his foot to it, and felt it shift slightly, but not enough to kill his balance in any way.<br>He moved his hands two stones lower, and felt the frame shift again. He moved his right hand down one more stone, and decided that he'd had enough of that.  
>He pushed off of the frame and the stone abruptly, refusing to think of all the ways that it could fail, swung his lower body out, then as gravity worked with him and motion to pull him through the window, let go.<br>He landed on the floor of Kamui's room hard, not managing to balance himself enough to stand and instead collapsing into an ungainly heap on the floor. The vampire of the room himself stood above him, arms crossed. "Took you long enough."  
>He started to shake, and was vaguely aware that he'd probably pushed his nerves and coping mechanisms farther than he could actually handle things, and that was probably most of what was providing his difficulties with the roof that he could easily handle on a good night's sleep and a restful day. "Could I go to bed now?" he asked without moving. "I think I've had enough."<br>Whatever Kamui saw, it must have softened him the rest of the way. "You're shaking." he said with concern. "I think it's time to get off the floor."  
>Strong arms grabbed his hands and started to pull him up, the only thing stopping Kamui from bodily lifting him being the rather large height discrepancy and the fact that Fuuma picked himself up as well. He was suddenly bone tired from everything that had happened and was really just ready to sleep for an eon. "Come on," Kamui encouraged from under him. "Keep moving or I won't be able to make you move."<br>Fuuma obeyed, and flopped on the bed as soon as Kamui guided him close enough in the dark. Then, possessed of a sudden spurt of reasonable energy, he turned around and began to fumble at his boot ties. He pushed one off and started work on the other, letting it fall to the floor with a heavy thud that rattled his bones. The coat was next, and tossed to the foot of the bed, and his glasses were last, placed on the convenient little table beside the bed with a gas lamp. He curled up on the bed, and looked over at Kamui.  
>The vampire, in what seemed to rapidly be becoming a habit, showed absolutely no shame as he shucked off his pants, leaving them tossed on the floor carelessly, and was wearing only his underwear and the shirt from dinner, a glowing white in the darkness. Fuuma would have blushed, but he was too tired.<br>He _did_ blush when Kamui walked over to the bed, started pulling down the comforters from midway down, and then climbed in to curl up against the pillows, flipping the blankets over them.  
>For some reason, an unanswered question from earlier popped into his mind with a desperate need to be asked. "Kamui," he began, and the vampire, fussing against the blankets like a dissatisfied cat, stopped and looked at him questioningly. "What does your name mean?"<br>Kamui started to laugh, and moved closer to him. "Do you really want to know that badly?" he purred, pressing against him just enough that he wanted to squirm away before abruptly stopping his movement and just lying there.  
>"Yes." he said without a hint of doubt in his voice, and the vampire chuckled again, the little sounds shaking the bed ever so slightly.<br>Kamui snorted. "Persistent, you've got that going for you at least." He pulled the blankets up higher on them, until they were over his shoulders and tucked beneath Kamui's chin. "If you really want to know that badly, then it means The One Who Represents The Majesty Of The Gods."  
>Fuuma blinked at him. "You're named to represent the majesty of the <em>gods<em>?" he asked, trying to comprehend the meaning of the name with the rest of his family.  
>Kamui laughed under his breath. "Yes, I am. And this god-representing vampire is cold and would like to snuggle against your warmness and not have any more conversations until way later tomorrow morning."<br>He really couldn't argue with that, not very much, and hesitantly slid an arm over Kamui's waist to hold him a little closer. Kamui's only response was to curl up more and make a sigh of contentment.  
>"...Your feet are cold, O Majestic one..."<br>"Shut up and go to sleep Fuuma."  
>"Yes sir."<br>There was no reason for him to be awake right now. He was in bed, it was dark out, he had his Subaru curled up in his arms, it was the perfect situation for sleeping well past the normal times he got up.  
>And yet for some reason, he was awake, with a little niggling beacon in the back of his head insisting that he get up and move, go somewhere to erase the feeling that was annoying him.<br>How so very annoying.  
>Seishirou blinked once in the darkness, noticing that there were no longer moonbeams resting on the floor, so it had to be pretty late, and shut his eyes again, resting his nose against the top of Subaru's head.<br>The natter of the beacon in the back of his head got louder, rather like Hokuto when getting into one of her tirades, which he now knew both from Subaru's stories and personal experience, was very hard to ignore.  
>When his shifting about to try and ignore it started to disturb the vampire curled up against his chest, Seishirou hissed through his teeth. This had no effect on the feeling in his head, and at last he gave up on ignoring it. It was only bugging him more the longer it went on unceasingly.<br>It was rather like a chanting in his head, only the words were up to him. And it was fucking _annoying_. At this rate, he was going to get out of bed just to kill the person doing so.  
>That was a very tempting idea in fact.<br>Subaru shifted against him again, whether unconsciously distressed by Seishirou's troubles, or just lost in dreams, he couldn't tell, but he pressed a gentle kiss against Subaru's forehead and then stroked his hair until the other vampire quieted again. Then, regretting it every step of the way, he disentangled himself and silently climbed out of the bed, making sure not to disturb the sleeping man next to him, and picked up the discarded shirt from earlier, since he had no desire to walk over to the annoyance clad in almost nothing. The pants followed suit quickly, and then he walked away before he could convince himself to ignore the repetitive annoying sensation and just go back to bed.  
>He opened and shut Subaru's door as silently as possible, guiding it shut so that the hinges didn't cry out as he closed it again, and then walked to the stairs, following the invisible trail of sound to stop at the top of it.<br>After a second's hesitation, in which he violently cursed whoever had the brilliant idea to wake him up in the middle of the night and disturb his Subaru, he started down the stairs, counting on the shadows in the deep to show him how many steps he had left before turning round to go down another flight. If it weren't for the fact that the relevant vampires were probably long dead, he would have taken whoever designed these stairs and introduced them to the idea of falling in circles.  
>At the bottom of the stairs, inevitably the beacon did not cease pulsing intently at him, and he growled slightly as he slowly walked through the halls towards a wooden side door that appeared to be conveniently unlatched...<br>He pushed it open to the night, and found at his feet, a thin long stone trail leading into the sinking moonlight and the mysteries of the night. The beacon sang with delight as he walked out of the castle entirely, humming contently as he started to walk along the cold path, feeling the curves of each stone with bare feet.  
>The path quickly led him to another small door in the vast wall of the garden, and he opened up that too, shutting it swiftly in case anyone was following him. Not that it was very likely, but seven years of fear were not lightly tossed aside, even with another fifteen to work on them and at least mute the habits.<br>When he stepped away from the shadows of the wall, he saw a garden that he logically knew was the same one as the day, and yet somehow looked completely different, and it was all because of one thing.  
>Fat blue flowers turned radiant faces to the sky, tall enough to be sunflowers if they had yellow stubby petals and a big fat center for seeds instead of a tiny center and long graceful petals. There could have been hundreds of the flowers lining the walkways and tracing out the pools, and they all had one thing in definite common.<br>They all glowed.  
>He could safely say, that in all of the worlds that he'd been to, none of them had ever had a glowing flower. He started to walk into the garden, sliding his feet along the grass so lightly he barely disturbed it, and, ignoring the less pleased humming in his head, began to try and study the moonflowers a little closer.<br>As he leaned down to look closer at the glowing flower, unable to figure out how it had such a celestial shade of light blue, he felt the buzzing of rapid wings fluttering across the back of his neck. When he whipped his head around to look at it with his single eye, he saw a darting ball of light, like a firefly, only too big and too brightly colored to be one. There was a soft humming noise, and when he turned his head to it, he saw another ball of light floating barely a foot away from him, before darting away into the night.  
>His curiosity, and the desire to see if they were something pretty, struck him, and he began to watch them intently, staring at them as they fluttered nearby to gather around him, standing as still as he possibly could.<br>Then, with lighting speed, he reached out and snatched one within his palm, and hesitantly he uncurled his fingers to see what had been following him. What he found surprised him, and he stared down at the little creature in wonder.  
>It was a small fairy, no bigger than the length of his thumb, with white skin that seemed to glow like the moon. When he turned slightly to put the sinking moon itself at his back, it became apparent that it was.<br>Looking like a tiny human for the most part, the thing that set it apart the most, other than its size, was its wings, thing as paper, and infinitely more fragile. They looked like mayfly wings, fat and translucent and one was torn in such a way that the fairy, if it was still alive, probably wouldn't be able to fly any more. He stated down at the little thing, wondering if the act of catching it had killed it, before it let out a rasping cough. The fairy lifted its head slowly, before sitting up and looking at him, and then it coughed again. He lifted it up higher, to see more carefully the glowing of it. "You are kind of pretty," he told it.  
>Without any hesitation at all, the small creature suddenly lunged forwards with an angry buzzing sound and bit the center of his palm. He cursed and shook his hand, throwing the thing down onto the ground heavily. He continued to utilize his knowledge of less than innocent words softly, examining the small crescent shaped bite mark in the center of his hand, and scowled. He looked back down at the little thing, seeing the small luminescent glow fade away; it had now died from the impact, tiny wings shattered beyond repair.<br>There was remorse, yes, but the only remorse he felt for it was the fact that he had killed such a beautiful creature, even if it was snotty with sharp teeth.  
>The beacon in his head tugged again, distracting him both from the tiny pain and the guilt, and he ran a hand through his hair, feeling how it almost seemed to divide before his fingers reached it, it was so clean, and let the sensation of healing take him over, the skin growing back from the wound on his palm, filling in the teeth marks until it was smooth again, fully healed and seemingly untouched.<br>Then he walked forward once more, ignoring the little fairies as best he could as they rushed over to the one he had killed, and he paid no mind as they swarmed around them once again, buzzing in agitation and the speed of their wings.  
>As he broke away from the normal path to follow the persistent nagging, he left the glowing moonflowers for the deep of the woods, blotting away the stars with the verdant leaves.<br>There were no secret tree conspiracies to trip him floating about his ears, and he managed to pick his way through the woods without error, slowly yes, but that was a slight side effect of walking in woods well past midnight.  
>At last he broke free of the trees into a clearing, where the starlight fell down to strike the little flowers with five white petals like them, and with a large bubbling fountain in the center of it. He walked over to it at the behest of the sensation in his head, and knelt down to look at it.<br>Abruptly the beacon in his head ended, and before he had time to look away from the babbling water, a voice called out to him, warm and rich like the earth that he knelt on. "Sei-chan."  
>He lifted his head abruptly to see Hokuto having appeared from the other end of the clearing, goblet held in one hand somehow both carelessly and delicately at the same time. "Hokuto-san." he said in return, not really sure how else to respond to her sudden appearance.<br>She made a face at him. "Don't use -san on me, I get enough of that from everyone who /doesn't/ treat me with respect. If you have to use an honorific, use -chan." The look in her eyes said that she held about the same respect for the honorific as she would for vomit at this point.  
>He decided not to argue the point with her, and instead sat on the stone rim of the fountain. "Hokuto-<em>chan<em>, then. Good evening. Why are you out so late?" he asked, watching as she walked across the clearing on bare feet to settle on the stone around the fountain. Strangely, she was wearing the least provocative clothing he'd seen her in all day, a black top and short black skirt with black leggings underneath, and it made her look much less like a painting sprung to life. A little more human, or vampiric if human was an insult to her.  
>"You has trouble on the way here, did you not?" she asked instead of answering his question as she sat down the goblet to run a slender finger across the water's surface, ripples trailing like fish fins.<br>Under her gentle touch, he saw the shadows of real fish fluttering up from wherever they were to bump against and nip at her finger gently. "Nothing serious, but you poked your nose where it shouldn't be." When she met his eyes, hers were dark and serious. "The fairies were all complaining and stirred up by "a vampire with no sense", and you're the only one else out here."  
>"How do you know that?" he asked her back, watching as she slid her fingers a little more into the dark water and the fish swarmed around more eagerly. "Can you hear other vampires walking around?"<br>She grinned at him impishly. "Not the vampires themselves. But everything else does talk about the things that disturb them, and I know how to listen to them." Her eyes took on a dim cast. "I can even hear the whisper of the stars if I want to. But they don't sing of the little things. Only the big ones. Like death. They know death, especially when it was death that wasn't supposed to happen. But they know life just as much."  
>How was he supposed to respond to that? He wasn't what she was, he couldn't hear the world. Just destroy it a piece at a time if he wanted. "I was bitten by one of those nosy fairies." he told her at last, trying to push away the weight of the conversation. She stared at him for a moment, and then laughed shrilly and harshly, scaring the fish back off into the deep pockets and crevices of the pond. "How did you provoke one of them into biting you? That's more than hilarious!" she shrieked, and he valiantly resisted the temptation to cover his ears from the sound.<br>"I picked one of them up and it bit me." he answered her, and was answered in return by another gale of laughter that really just stung at both his ears and his pride.  
>She covered her mouth with her free hand and squeaked with laughter as she rocked back on the stone. "Well I guess I can't blame you too much, since they are pretty." she said at last, still shaking and holding back the sound. "But they really aren't nice. At all."<br>He gave her a flat look. "Yeah, I got that." and she started to laugh again.  
>When the forest had been thoroughly scared away by the sound of her voice and the world seemed to be silent, she ceased laughing, and instead just smiled at him. "Go on and ask the questions you want to ask me. It's why I'm out here."<br>He gave her a flat look, and she just shrugged playfully. So he took the bait, knowing full well he might get more answers than he necessarily wanted. "Why did you call me out here?"  
>"So I could talk with you." she said enigmatically, picking up the goblet and holding it gently between her hands. "Out of all of my children, you are the one who I've spent the least time with, and perhaps the one who needs it the most."<br>"Why do you say that?" he asked harshly, perhaps more harshly than needed, but he wasn't going to take his chances.  
>She was completely unfazed by it, only setting down her glass again and reaching into the pond, trailing her fingers beyond where the fragile starlight could pierce through. "I know who your mother was, and why you are unhappy." she said, eyes trained on the pond, and not on him. "And I know that if you could never think of her again, it would be too little still. But no child is happy when alone. So I thought I would talk with you, perhaps not like a mother, if you can't handle that any more, but as a friend who has been a mother."<br>How so very strange, it was impossible to be angry with her when she came off as so reasonably wise, and yet she still seemed to _know_ more than he wanted her to. "What did you want to talk about then?" he asked, less confrontational than the first time.  
>For a moment, the woman didn't answer, intent on whatever was happening in the pond, then she smiled and began to draw her hand out carefully, immediately cupping her hands together as she freed herself from the water. The very act of her concealing something made him curious to what she held, but he said nothing. "Subaru's life force is changing, fading away." she said, her voice full of nothing but love for her son, yet Seishirou could somehow still feel her uncertainty in it. "His life span is reversing from near immortality to match yours, a changed vampire. Even though you do carry the blood of the most powerful, your life span could be seen as negligible to what his could be."<br>His breath caught in his throat. "What do you mean?" he asked in a voice that was unable to be more than a whisper. "Is he...?"  
>She shook her head faintly, still holding whatever she'd found with all the tenderness of a mother who did love her children the way they should be loved. "When a vampire, of any clan, finds the one they are destined to love, they bind their souls together. It's why we exchange necklaces, so that we can show the tangible mark." Seishirou reached up to touch the one now hanging from his neck, the comforting silent weight. She smiled at him as she saw the motion. "You do already understand it a little, the amount of power you give and you take, and how it can change you beyond ways you thought you could be changed."<br>Her smile was sad, filled with a thousand memories he would never be able to tap into. "I have given that power, and taken it back now twice. And I love both of my husbands equally, they both have changed me in ways that I cannot even begin to understand all the ways they did. And I love them dearly despite it, and because of it. Without them, there is something that I will never see the same way. Without them, I would not have my children, and without them, we would not be sitting here today, talking of this."  
>"Subaru is not dying." she continued. "But he is changing, whether for the best or not, I cannot say, for who is it of me to decide whether another person's life choices are worth it in the end, and it is because of you. There will never be someone who can make him be as much as he is, and he will never want it. Only you. So I have to trust you with him, with his life, his love and his happiness. And all three are very important to me. Do you understand what I ask of you to take them on?"<br>_'Do you understand what I ask of you to take them on?_' Seishirou let the last words of hers spill over into his mind into a circuitous waterfall, over and over again, while the woman herself was patient with him, letting him figure out the meaning behind her words.  
><em>'Do you understand what I ask of you to take them on?'<em> She was trusting him with her son, with Subaru, after everything he did, and everything he'd let happen to him, because it would make Subaru happier. Even though she knew all the scars that he would never acknowledge, she was still willing to trust him, willing to come out and confront him with that very fact.  
><em>'Do you understand what I ask of you to take them on?'<em>  
>Almost as if the answer to her question could be summed up by a single image, a memory floated to mind, of Subaru showing him something, something little and he couldn't even remember what it was. Maybe it was a bird's nest, they had been in a tree at the time. Subaru had been up higher in the branches than him, peering through the heavy leaves of that tree, rather like an elf in the stories Fuuma had loved so dearly then.<br>He had turned back to smile at Seishirou then, as the wind fluttered by and brushed aside the leaves enough to gild him and his bright smile in sunlight. And while at the time he didn't know why it affected him so, looking back he could understand everything clearly.  
>He knew exactly what he'd found then.<br>He smiled back at her. "I do." he said with sincerity, and her smile brightened to drown out the stars above.  
>"Then you are truly as honorable as the stars say." she said softly, "You are worthy of their praise."<br>This had the strange effect of making him want to shift away from her gaze, rather like Subaru did when flattered enough to blush, and fidget uncomfortably.  
>Hokuto laughed gently, and then lifted her hands up to him before uncurling her fingers slowly, revealing the little treasure she'd found.<br>When he caught sight of what she held, he couldn't help but grin. It was a fairy of some sorts, that resembled a human at first, but with the most peculiar frog legs. The creature stared at him, tilting its head to the side so that deep olive hair dripped onto Hokuto's hands, staring up at him in wonderment. "It's a frog girl." he said as he leaned in a little closer to see it, not currently possessed of his glasses to look closer at the creature.  
>Hokuto giggled a little bit, startling the strange being and causing it to leap from her hand and back into the murky water, disappearing into the deep.<br>Seishirou watched the beast swim away and vanish, before looking back up at the vampire. "How do you hear the stars?" he asked her then, now that she seemed to be more relaxed and happier.  
>She smirked at him. "The same way I hear everything else. The whole world, and everything in it is born with a voice. Just most people can't hear the voices of anyone besides other humans." She looked rather proud of herself. "I can hear all the animals of the world, and all the plants. I can hear the groaning of the rocks, and the singing of the water and the whispers of the wind. I can hear the sun, and the moon, and the thousands of stars above. I can hear the world in its endless journey, circling and living in a way we can never mimic."<br>She leaned back, pulling her feet up onto the rim of the fountain, continuing to talk without needing him to interrupt. It was rather nice in a strange way, that she knew which tangents to take without him having to go to the effort of asking her. "Tohru was always asking me what I could here, and frequently if it was talking badly about him. Which, half the time, it _was_, because he'd be trodding on flowers and accidentally scaring away the birds or rabbits or foxes that came to me."  
>Hokuto laughed again, rather like the chinkling of bells as opposed to her usual hysterical riot, and continued, "He seemed so arrogant to me when I first met him, the prankster. He took credit for my prank then, so that I wouldn't get in trouble. And he was always following me around and being far too protective for my tastes, once he set my curtains on fire because I got stuck in them. I hit him for that afterwards." she added with a snort. "But I fell in love with him, and all of the silly traits that seemed so odd. And when he asked me to, I married him." she said, smiling widely.<br>Seishirou could see the ghost of memory in her eyes as she stared at him. "And then I got pregnant. He was so stunned, and so overjoyed; the very fact that I could conceive meant that I had become mortal for him, forsaking the longest years of my life to give them to our children. Love tends to do that, you know, such foolish things as giving up eternal life." she said, winking at him.  
>He couldn't quite share in her amusement, but he nodded at her, and then stared at the ripples on the water as they swayed slowly, little silvery tides drawn up against the walls of the basin by the moonlight.<br>"Subaru has chosen to give up his immortality for you." she said, again growing serious. "Although you both will live a long time, especially if you stay together, and happy, there is now a definite end to his time on this world. As there is with everything, but it is painful to realize it." Her eyes sang of all the conflicting feelings she held, those of a mother who had to fight for everything she had now and was still a little wary of letting her babies leave the nest to face the world alone. "I don't know what will happen, I cannot see the future in dreams, or water, or in visions, but I can watch everything, and trust my hopes that it will be alright."  
>"And you may live well beyond a millennium, past how long I can watch you both and protect you. I can see that in your future." she mused with a softer smile. "If that is so, then when I pass on, I will wish you all the happiness you've had and you've yet to have."<br>"And now it's time for you to go back to bed!" she said suddenly, startling him out of the contemplative state she'd lulled him into, with a burst of energy that would have made any child envious of how long she could bounce around. "I'm sure that Subaru's getting all cold and lonely in the bed now that you've left him there for so long."  
>He opened his mouth to tell her that it was <em>her<em> fault he was up and out so lately, but she flicked her hands teasingly at him rather like one would shoo off a persistent pet. At last he bent under her will, fighting against it would be much harder, and laughed. "Okay, I'm going, I'm going!" he called back at her as he stood up.  
>She grinned at him as he turned around, walking away from her and the fountain back to the castle where a nice bed and a cuddly Subaru waited for him. But when he had almost left the clearing, she called to him again. "Seishirou!"<br>The use of his whole name drew his attention, and despite the fact that he just wanted to go back to bed, he turned around to look at her again.  
>She had stood up now, still as any of the trees around them, and ghostly pale in the starlight. Her smile was warmly enigmatic, and he had the thought that if he spent a hundred years with her every day, he would still never be able to read that smile. "I know what you've done in your past. I know the evils you've caused and the hate you've born and shared. But you did it all to be with Subaru. You've traveled across space and time for him, you've lost an eye, you have even given up all you knew, just for Subaru. And that is love that no one can deny." Her voice was as warm as a mother's gentle hand, and inexplicably sad. "I suggest you get as much rest as you can tonight, Sei-chan. I fear tomorrow will hold many hardships for us all."<br>"What do you mean?" he asked her, but she shook her head, lines of black hair scattering against her face like night rain.  
>"Good night, Sei-chan!" she called at him, and again made the shooing motions with her hands, not stopping until he turned around reluctantly, and began to walk back through the woods, feeling much more like an adult than usual.<br>The woods were darker now, or maybe they just seemed that way. He walked through them, looking for the silhouettes of branches and trees more than actual shapes, and mostly avoiding them, although smacking his foot into a heavy log caused him to need to muffle the instinctive curses.  
>The weight of the darkness and the night, and all the things he had to carry wrapped around him like a shield of wings, both a blessing and a prison, and he couldn't say which they were more.<br>He left the shadows of the woods, into the garden of blue and fluttering lights. The moonflowers were much more successful in guiding his path back out of the garden, and the flickering lights of fairies darted about from blossom to blossom and successfully ignoring him. He walked along the path in thought, trying to not bow down under the weight that Hokuto had put on him.  
>Subaru had chosen to bind their lives together so that they wouldn't be apart.<br>There was so much he didn't know about vampires, so many things that all the books in the library could never tell him, and now he was going to have to step up and be strong. Because the very thought of Subaru dying was so horrifying as to be incomprehensible in its wrongness.  
>The door had not latched in his time away, and he was able to push it open with only the softest groans on old hinges.<br>It fell shut with a silent thud that seemed to rattle his bones. Despite being able to hear that it wasn't enough to wake anyone who wasn't right in front of it, he still looked about the hall for signs of anyone waking up and moving around.  
>And it was silent.<br>So very strangely silent, and suddenly it didn't seem like a warm place, a place where he could imagine a much younger Subaru living and being happy in, because how could a child as sweet as him be happy in such a gloomy place?  
>He knew full well that it was an effect of the late night and the fact that everyone was asleep, but it just seemed so empty now.<br>Walking away from the door at last, he ghosted across to the stairway and padded up the stairs, all seven flights, aware of how much more ancient the castle looked without light and people in it. Even after dinner and on their way back from their bath, there had still been hints of life in the burning torches and little whispers drifting around corners. At the top of the stairs, a last flicker of moonlight shown through the western window in a sad little pool on the floor. He stepped around it, and back into the darkened halls.  
>Past the great dining room doors, and the two rooms set between those doors and Subaru's room, and there wasn't even a great panther stalking along the floor to break the silence of it all. How so very strange, that everything seemed so much more abandoned now, in the deep of the night. The metal handle was bitterly cold under his hand.<br>He opened the door carefully, and was greeted by more silence, the room unchanged since his departure. He shut it just as quietly, and walked across the chilly floor. Pushing the heavy curtains covering the doorway of Subaru's bedroom aside, he walked in and let it fall.  
>The young vampire, and he was young in the standards of his people still, regardless of actual age, was curled up in a tight ball against where he had been lying before, with the blankets pulled up to his chin, looking cold and small on his own.<br>It was adorable in a lonely way, and that was a strangely sad thought. He didn't want to think of his Subaru being lonely.  
>He walked across the floor as lightly as a shadow, gently freeing the covers from Subaru's tightly curled fingers, and slipping into the bed again, pleased to feel that beneath the blankets was much/ warmer than the outside air.  
>Subaru shifted and snuggled closer to him as Seishirou wrapped his arms around the smaller vampire, rather like a cat only disturbed by the gentlest of affectionate touches, but did nothing more as he continued to walk through his own dream world, curled up against Seishirou like there was nowhere he'd rather be.<br>Seishirou let himself smile a little and rested his forehead against his Subaru's, falling asleep and collapsing into strange dreams he wouldn't remember, nor care about not remembering in the morning, the moment his eyes closed.  
>For the first time in his entire life, everything straightened around him and maybe the little things didn't matter so much. He felt peaceful...and at home.<p>

-A/N- Hello again! the next chapter after this will be epic! though not the most epic part! we are working very hard to get this to you finished! written by Fields Of Paper and Phoenix To Flame. stay tuned, and please leave a review! We thrive on them! :D 


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